Development of a helicon-wave excited plasma facility with high magnetic field for plasma-wall interactions studies

The high magnetic field helicon experiment system is a helicon wave plasma (HWP) source device in a high axial magnetic field (B-0) developed for plasma-wall interactions studies for fusion reactors. This HWP was realized at low pressure (5 x 10(-3) - 10 Pa) and a RF (radio frequency, 13.56 MHz) power (maximum power of 2 kW) using an internal right helical antenna (5 cm in diameter by 18 cm long) with a maximum B-0 of 6300 G. Ar HWP with electron density similar to 10(18) -10(20) m(-3) and electron temperature similar to 4-7 eV was produced at high B-0 of 5100 G, with an RF power of 1500 W. Maximum Ar+ ion flux of 7.8 x 10(23) m(-2) s(-1) with a bright blue core plasma was obtained at a high B-0 of 2700 G and an RF power of 1500W without bias. Plasma energy and mass spectrometer studies indicate that Ar+ ion-beams of 40.1 eV are formed, which are supersonic (similar to 3.1c(s)). The effect of Ar HWP discharge cleaning on the wall conditioning are investigated by using the mass spectrometry. And the consequent plasma parameters will result in favorable wall conditioning with a removal rate of 1.1 x 10(24) N-2/m(2)h.