Antenna design and optimization for helicon plasma thruster with coupled surface and volume integral equations

Optimization of radiofrequency helicon plasma sources for the development of space plasma thrusters (whose thrust efficiency and specific impulse depend on the power coupled into the plasma) has focused on the absorption of wave energy by cold collisional plasmas, but not much on the role played by the antenna that drives the discharge. To overcome these limitations and to optimize the power deposited by the antenna into the plasma, we propose a full-wave approach based on integral equations to compute the current distribution on the antenna conductors self-consistently, i.e., also keeping into account the effect that the plasma in turn has on the antenna. Preliminary results of antenna current distribution and antenna impedance versus frequency and plasma parameters are presented.