Characterization of developed high-density helicon plasma sources and Helicon Electrodeless Advanced Thruster (HEAT) project

Summary form only given. High-density but low temperature helicon plasmas have been proved to be very useful for fundamental research as well as for various applications. First, we introduce various sizes of our developed high-density (~ 10¹³ cm^-3) helicon sources [1-3] in a very wide range of a diameter between 1 and 74 cm. Here, for the industrial and propulsion applications in mind, we have examined the discharge performance and wave characteristics along with a discussion of a particle production efficiency. Then, we discuss our helicon sources for developing new electrodeless acceleration schemes. Although high specific impulse can be provided by electric propulsion systems, many of conventional electric thrusters suffer from a problem of finite life time due to the electrode wastage. In order to solve this problem, we have initiated the HEAT (Helicon Electrodeless Advanced Thruster) project [2-3] to develop completely electrodeless advanced-concept electric thrusters. Here, as a review in our project, some experimental and theoretical approaches to realize this concept are presented, by applying, e.g., the rotating magnetic (or electric) fields to the helicon plasma.