Design and Characterisation of a Helicon Apparatus for Investigations of Parametric Instabilities in Magnetised Plasma

Parametric instabilities [1] arise across many plasma physics environments including inertial [2] and magnetic [3] confinement fusion and in ionospheric plasmas [4] . A helicon [5] plasma source can provide a stable, controllable, low temperature and relatively tenuous plasma for periods of hours, making it suited to diagnosis by techniques such as probes and interferometry. Our apparatus operates in inductive and helicon modes driven by an RF antenna in the range of 3