High-Density Blue-Mode Argon Plasma Under an Expanding Magnetic Field Provided by Permanent Magnets
- Resource Type
- Periodical
- Authors
- Takahashi, K.; Shida, Y.; Chiba, H.; Fujiwara, T.
- Source
- IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science IEEE Trans. Plasma Sci. Plasma Science, IEEE Transactions on. 39(11):2438-2439 Nov, 2011
- Subject
- Engineered Materials, Dielectrics and Plasmas
Fields, Waves and Electromagnetics
Plasma sources
Radio frequency
Permanent magnets
Argon
Magnetic resonance imaging
Production
Helicon wave discharges
permanent magnets
plasma production
plasma propulsion
- Language
- ISSN
- 0093-3813
1939-9375
A 13-cm-diameter magnetically expanding plasma source using only permanent magnets and a high-power radio frequency (RF) generator of 13.56 MHz are installed in the Large diameter Permanent Magnets expanding Plasma machine at I wate University. The source is preliminarily operated for 500-W and 3-kW RF powers of 13.56 MHz in argon of 0.2 Pa. The double concentric arrays of the permanent magnets can provide expanding magnetic fields of about 80 G in the source tube and about 10 G at 30 cm downstream of the source exit. A purple light emission is seen for low-power condition of 500 W, while a blue-mode argon plasma is observed for high-power operation of 3 kW. The blue light emission implies the production of the high-density plasma by helicon mode discharge. In this paper, the images of the plasmas are presented.