Electron cyclotron resonance heating in a short cylindrical plasma system

Electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) plasma is produced and studied in a small cylindrical system. Microwave power is delivered by a CW magnetron at 2.45 GHz in TE¹⁰ mode and launched radially to have extraordinary (X) wave in plasma. The axial magnetic field required for ECR in the system is such that the first two ECR surfaces (B = 875.0 G andB = 437.5 G) reside in the system. ECR plasma is produced with hydrogen with typical plasma density n^e as 3.2 × 10¹⁰ cm^-3 and plasma temperature T^e between 9 and 15 eV. Various cut-off and resonance positions are identified in the plasma system. ECR heating (ECRH) of the plasma is observed experimentally. This heating is because of the mode conversion of X-wave to electron Bernstein wave (EBW) at the upper hybrid resonance (UHR) layer. The power mode conversion efficiency is estimated to be 0.85 for this system. The experimental results are presented in this paper.