Low-Power RF plasma sources for technological applications: III. helicon plasma sources

The third part of the paper is devoted to an investigation of the so-called helicon plasma sources. These are RF devices operating with a relatively weak external magnetic field, which is, at the same time, strong enough for the resonant electron gyrofrequency to be much higher than the industrial frequency (ω=8.52×10⁷ s⁻¹). As in 1, 2], a study is made of elongated cylindrical plasma sources in a longitudinal (directed along the cylinder axis) magnetic field and planar disk-shaped plasma sources in a transverse (perpendicular to the plane of the disk) magnetic field. A comparison of the present results with the results that were obtained in 3] without using the helicon approximation leads to the conclusion that elongated helicon sources hold great promise for plasma technologies.