Helicon waves and efficient plasma production

Abstract

Helicon waves generated by radio-frequency (rf) waves are experimentally demonstrated to have the characteristics of Landau damping, as predicted theoretically, and fully ionized plasmas are realized by this efficient coupling of rf powers to plasmas. Excited waves are identified as a helicon wave by measuring wavelengths in the plasma along the magnetic field and comparing with the dispersion relation. Good agreement is found between experimental and theoretical results.