Abstract
Helicon discharges have attracted great attention in the electric propulsion community in recent years. To acquire the equilibrium properties, a self-consistent model is developed, which combines the helicon/Trivelpiece—Gould (TG) waves-plasma interaction mechanism and the plasma flow theory under the confinement of the magnetic field. The calculations reproduce the central peak density phenomenon observed in the experiments. The results show that when operating in the wave coupling mode, high magnetic field strength B0 results in the deviation of the central density versus B0 from the linear relationship, while the density rise becomes flatter as the radiofrequency (rf) input power Prf grows, and the electron temperature Te radial profile is mainly determined by the characteristic of the rf energy deposition. The model could provide suggestions in choosing the B0 and Prf for medium power helicon thrusters.
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