High Efficiency Helicon Plasma Source for PMI Studies

The development of fusion energy will require materials resilient to harsh bombardment by energetic plasma. Linear plasma devices are widely used to examine such materials by simulating power loads and particle fluxes, which are envisaged for the future reactor grade plasma devices. To correctly simulate these conditions, the plasma in the simulator should be running continuously and have high enough density, 10¹⁹m^-3 or higher. A good candidate to produce such a plasma is a helicon plasma source. This paper reviews a helicon plasma source, which is under development in collaboration between the Budker Institute and Forshungzentrum Juelich, in perspective of its application at the JULE-PSI device.