Dynamic plasma behavior and wave structure excited by helicon wave

A high density plasma production by a helicon wave has become very attractive in confinement devices as well as in plasma processing ones. However, a mechanism of plasma production, and time behavior and space structure of plasma parameters including excited wave fields have been scarcely studied. Here, we investigate the dynamic behavior of helicon wave produced plasma in detail and systematically. The filling pressure of Ar gas is ∼0.6 mTorr with the axial magnetic field of 1 kG typically, and RF power and frequency are < 3 kW and 7 MHz, respectively. One turn antenna is located from z = -20 to 0 cm around a Pyrex tube (I.D. 5 cm)