Development of a compact helicon plasma source with two sets of ring array permanent magnets for the study of blue core plasma

Ying Xia; Xin Yang; Lei Chang; Hua Zhou; Jin-Heng Zhang; Dong Jing; Qian Xu; Guo-Jian Niu; Hai-Shan Zhou; Guang-Nan Luo

doi:10.1063/5.0170135

Development of a compact helicon plasma source with two sets of ring array permanent magnets for the study of blue core plasma

Rev Sci Instrum. 2023 Dec 1;94(12):125110. doi: 10.1063/5.0170135.

Authors

Ying Xia^{1

2}, Xin Yang¹, Lei Chang³, Hua Zhou¹, Jin-Heng Zhang^{1

2}, Dong Jing^{1

2}, Qian Xu¹, Guo-Jian Niu¹, Hai-Shan Zhou^{1

2}, Guang-Nan Luo^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Plasma Physics, Hefei Institutes of Physical Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei 230031, China.
² University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China.
³ State Key Laboratory of Power Transmission Equipment and System Security and New Technology, Chongqing University, Chongqing 400044, China.

PMID: 38126814
DOI: 10.1063/5.0170135

Abstract

A compact helicon plasma source for the study of helicon plasma, especially for the study of blue core plasma, is designed and developed with permanent magnets (PMs). The structure of the PMs consists of two sets of ring array magnets with opposite magnetization. This structure can provide a higher magnetic field with fewer PMs, which is helpful for controlling the device's mass. A quartz tube with 50 cm in length, 5 cm in outer diameter, and 0.3 cm in thickness is used. Argon helicon plasma is produced at ∼38 sccm (3.4 Pa inlet chamber and 0.122 Pa diffusion chamber) by a radio frequency (RF) power of ∼13.56 MHz using a helical antenna under a high magnetic field (∼1600 G). Preliminary results measured by the Langmuir probe, photomultiplier tube (PMT), CCD, and Hall coil are applied to characterize the helicon plasma in this source, such as the mode transition and the formation of the blue core with the RF power variation. The device generates the blue core (W mode) plasma at a lower power of about 200 W, and the energy coupling efficiency is as high as 65%.