Progress in the development of a high power helicon plasma source for the materials plasma exposure eXperiment

Proto-MPEX is a linear plasma device being used to study a novel RF source concept for the planned Material Plasma Exposure eXperiment (MPEX), which will address plasma-materials interaction (PMI) for nuclear fusion reactors. Plasmas are produced using a large diameter helicon source operating at a frequency of 13.56 MHz at power levels up to 120 kW. In recent experiments the helicon source has produced deuterium plasmas with densities up to ∼6 × 10¹⁹ m^-3 measured at a location 2 m downstream from the antenna and 0.4 m from the target. Previous plasma production experiments on Proto-MPEX have generated lower density plasmas with hollow electron temperature profiles and target power deposition peaked far off axis. The latest experiments have produced flat T_e profiles with a large portion of the power deposited on the target near the axis. This and other evidence points to the excitation of a helicon mode in this case.