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Published on: December 22, 2018
Axial momentum lost to a lateral wall of a helicon plasma source
Kazunori Takahashi1, Aiki Chiba1, Atsushi Komuro1
1Department of Electrical Engineering, Tohoku University, Sendai 980-8579, Japan.
Abstract:
Momentum exerted to a lateral wall of a helicon plasma source is individually measured for argon, krypton, and xenon gases. A significant loss of the axial plasma momentum to the lateral wall, which has been assumed to be negligible, is experimentally identified when an axially asymmetric density profile is formed in the source. This indicates that the radially lost ions deliver not only the radial momentum but also the axial momentum to the lateral wall. The formation of the axial asymmetry causing the momentum loss is interpreted with competition between the magnetic field and neutral depletion effects.
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