The influence of the magnetic field on the electrical breakdown phenomena

A simple phenomenological model and detailed simulation studies of the breakdown phenomena in argon and nitrogen under the simultaneous action of electric and magnetic fields are presented in this paper. Expressions for the breakdown voltage have been derived taking into account variations of both the ionization coefficient and the secondary electron yield in a magnetic field. Calculations were performed by using XOOPIC code, an Object Oriented Particle in Cell code, with both the original and the improved secondary emission model with inclusion of the influence of the magnetic field on the secondary electron production. The simulation results presented here clearly show that the inclusion of the dependence of the secondary electron yield on the magnetic field leads to better agreement with existing experimental results.