Effect of the Longitudinal Magnetic Field on the Electrical Breakdown in Argon and Nitrogen Plasma Discharges

The electrical breakdown has been studied for low-pressure argon and nitrogen discharges under the influence of a longitudinal magnetic field. Plane-parallel stainless steel electrodes (7.25 cm diameter) separated at the distance d (2.0 cm) were sustained with a dc voltage (0 - 700 V). Permanent magnets was used to produce an uniform magnetic field (B = 855G) parallel to the discharge axis. Paschen curves are obtained and the first Paschen curves, these curves are plotted for fixed values of B = 0 and B = 855 Gauss. The effect of longitudinal magnetic field becomes more significanor to obtain values of η, but it is less for the values of γ, separations (2cm) and different working pressure contributes Townsend discharge regime at a new range of plane-parallel electrode. The results show that by increasing of magnetic field Townsend coefficient and the ionization efficiency of the system significantly enhances.