Effect of gas injection pattern on magnetically expanding rf plasma source

Argon gas is injected from a back plate having either a radial center hole or shower-patterned eight holes into a 13.3-cm-diameter and 25-cm-long radio frequency (rf) plasma source attached to a 43.7-cm-diameter and 65cm-long diffusion chamber under an expanding magnetic field, which resembles the magnetic nozzle rf plasma thruster. The source has a double-turn loop antenna powered by a 13.56 MHz rf generator at a maximum power level of ~2.8 kW in low-pressure argon, providing a plasma density of about 1018 m−3 in the source. A high plasma density and a slightly low electron temperature are obtained for the shower-pattered case in both the source tube and the diffusion chamber, compared with the center hole case, suggesting that the neutral density profile significantly affects the plasma density profile. This result will provide an improvement in the thruster performance by the gas injection pattern.