Resonant power absorption in helicon plasma sources

Helicon discharges produce plasmas with a density gradient across the confining magnetic field. Such plasmas can create a radial potential well for nonaxisymmetric whistlers, allowing radially localized helicon RLH waves. This work presents new evidence that RLH waves play a significant role in helicon plasma sources. An experimentally measured plasma density profile in an argon helicon discharge is used to calculate the rf field structure. The calculations are performed using a two–dimensional field solver under the assumption that the density profile is axisymmetric. It is found that RLH waves with an azimuthal wave number m=1 form a standing wave structure in the axial direction and that the frequency of the RLH eigenmode is close to the driving frequency of the rf antenna. The calculated resonant power absorption, associated with the RLH eigenmode, accounts for most of the rf power deposited into the plasma in the experiment. © 2006 American Institute of Physics. DOI: 10.1063/1.2402913