Damping characteristics of helicon and Trivelpiece–Gould waves in high density and low magnetic field helicon plasma

Abstract

By employing a warm plasma model and considering a cyclotron harmonic effect in dielectric tensor elements, the power deposition properties of the azimuthally symmetric mode of the helicon and Trivelpiece–Gould (TG) waves due to collisional and kinetic damping in high density (∼1 × 1013 cm−3), low magnetic fields (∼30–50 G), and low to moderate neutral gas pressure (∼0.5–10 mTorr) helicon plasma are investigated. Theoretical calculations indicate that the magnetic field imposed a significant influence on the mode coupling surface properties between the helicon and TG waves; in a typical helicon plasma electron temperature range, Te ∈ (3, 5) eV, there exists the critical neutral gas pressure, below or above which different waves due to different damping mechanisms play the dominant role in the power deposition; meanwhile, in low neutral gas pressure (∼0.5 mTorr) circumstances, TG waves due to Landau damping dominate the power deposition and this dominance gradually becomes intensified as the magnetic field increases.