[Table of Contents]

Plasma and Fusion Research

Volume 9, 3406047 (2014)

Regular Articles

Generation and Acceleration of High-Density Helicon Plasma Using Permanent Magnets for the Completely Electrodeless Propulsion System
Shuhei OTSUKA, Toshiki NAKAGAWA, Hiroki ISHII, Naoto TESHIGAHARA, Hiroaki FUJITSUKA, Shimpei WASEDA, Takamichi ISHII, Daisuke KUWAHARA and Shunjiro SHINOHARA
Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, 2-24-16 Naka-Cho, Koganei, Tokyo 184-8588, Japan
(Received 18 November 2013 / Accepted 14 March 2014 / Published 7 May 2014)

Abstract

In our proposed method of the completely electrodeless electric propulsion system, a high-density (∼ 1013 cm−3 ) helicon plasma is accelerated by the Lorentz force, i.e., the product of the azimuthal current jθ and the radial component of magnetic field Br. In order to promote the plasma acceleration scheme, we used permanent magnets (PMs) designed to increase Br in comparison to the present electromagnets (EMs). As an initial try of the plasma acceleration by our system, electron density ne and ion velocity vi of generated plasma using PMs' magnetic field were measured, and we have obtained the maximum value of ne = 2.5 × 1012 cm−3 and vi = 2.2 km/s. In addition, we have also introduced a combined, flexible operation of using PMs and EMs leading to better plasma performance.

Keywords

helicon plasma, electrodeless electric propulsion, permanent magnet, magnetic nozzle

DOI: 10.1585/pfr.9.3406047

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This paper may be cited as follows:

Shuhei OTSUKA, Toshiki NAKAGAWA, Hiroki ISHII, Naoto TESHIGAHARA, Hiroaki FUJITSUKA, Shimpei WASEDA, Takamichi ISHII, Daisuke KUWAHARA and Shunjiro SHINOHARA, Plasma Fusion Res. 9, 3406047 (2014).