Development of Electron Cyclotron Resonance Plasma Source for Space Environment Simulator:An Instrumentation Study

A novel type of microwave electron cyclotron resonance(ECR) plasma source was developed for the project of space environment simulator.The original work was the two plasma extraction structures,i.e.a diffusion-cup and a mesh-grid.The influence of the discharge conditions,including the argon pressure,microwave power,magnetic field distribution and self-developed plasma extraction structures,on the plasma properties,such as the density and temperature distributions of electron was experimentally evaluated with Langmuir probes and numerically simulated with COMSOL software.The results show that the e-density and e-temperature distributions can be well controlled in a fairly wide range by precisely adjusting the discharge conditions,particularly the “big” coil current for generation of ECR magnetic field,and that the extraction structures significantly affect the plasma uniformity and stability.The measured results show that the newly-developed ECR plasma source well satisfied the stringent design requirements.