Effects of cavity resonance and antenna resonance on mode transitions in helicon plasma

Mechanisms of cavity resonance and antenna resonance and their coupling effects on mode transitions in argon helicon plasma excited by a half-helical antenna (14 cm in length) were investigated in this paper. Cavity length was changed to distinguish the effects of cavity and antenna resonances in experiments. Plasma parameters under various discharge conditions, such as input power (0-2500 W), magnetic field (0-1000 G) and cavity length (10-42 cm) were measured. Characteristics of helicon discharges and mode transitions in cases of fixed and continuously changing cavity lengths were compared. The results show that multiple axial eigenmodes (at least five in the present work) were observed in both cases. In fixed-length cavities, the helicon discharge changes abruptly during mode transitions, while in changeable-length cavities, discharge features can change continuously (e.g. in a large range of density from 1.7 × 10¹² to 1.3 × 10¹³ cm⁻³) without mode transition. Mode transitions also occur as the cavity length increases at fixed input power and magnetic field with periodical variations of plasma parameters. Cavity resonance plays a dominant role in the formation of standing helicon waves of eigenmodes and mode transitions, while antenna resonance significantly affects the transition from inductively coupled modes to helicon wave modes. Enhanced inter-coupling of cavity resonance and antenna resonance appears at specific axial wavelengths of eigenmodes. The threshold conditions for mode transitions were deduced and the overall transition path of wave modes and the corresponding density were predicted quantitatively, which shows that cavity resonance determines the transition path of wave modes, while antenna resonance gives the lower limit of the transition path. Characteristics of helicon discharge and mode transition are closely related to the axial wavenumber. Cavity and antenna resonances influence the helicon discharge and mode transition by determining the axial wavenumber of eigenmodes.