Electromagnetic surface waves for a new approach to the investigation of plasmas produced at electron cyclotron resonance (ECR)

The authors propose and put to use a new approach to studying magnetised plasmas sustained by a high frequency (HF) field, particularly aiming at examining the case of discharges achieved at electron cyclotron resonance. This approach considers the methodology and the formalism of the modeling of cylindrical plasma columns produced by electromagnetic surface waves and extends them to the case where these discharges are submitted to an axial, static magnetic field B 0 . It leads to a variety of waves that are guided by the plasma column, these waves differing in particular by the spatial distribution of their electric field intensity. This distribution plays on the power transfer from the HF field to the plasma and it influences the spatial density distribution of excited atoms. This led them to analyse, as a function of B 0 , the respective effects of the wave attenuation coefficient, wave polarization and HF power required to maintain an electron-ion pair in the discharge upon the plasma density and upon the electric field for the gas breakdown.