A 0.2 T high magnetic field helicon wave plasma source device and its performance test

As a kind of high density plasma source, helicon wave plasma source has broad prospects in plasma applications. In this paper, an adjustable magnetic field helicon wave plasma source is designed. The helicon wave plasma source consists of a helicon wave antenna, a quartz glass tube discharge chamber, two water-cooled electromagnetic coils, a radio frequency (RF) power supply, a vacuum pump, and a gas supply system. The designed helicon wave plasma source can realize three different discharge modes [capacitively coupled (E) mode, inductively coupled (H) mode, and helicon wave (W) mode]. In W mode, the "Blue Core" plasma is produced with the RF power between 200 and 300 W and the background magnetic field is 0.2 T. The plasma spectral lines are collected using a plasma spectrometer during the H and W modes. In the "Blue Core" plasma, the spectral lines of argon (Ar) ion, xenon (Xe) ion, and krypton (Kr) ion are measured. The Langmuir probe is used to measure the variation in plasma density downstream of the discharge chamber with RF power under different magnetic field configurations, and the results show that non-uniform magnetic fields can produce higher density plasmas.