“…The high-frequency breakdown characteristics of various gases in the presence of a magnetic field were first studied by Townsend and Gill (1938) and have since been subjected to extensive investigations (Lax et al 1950, Ferriti and Veronesi 1955, Nagomyphi 1966, Bacri 1965, Nakamura and Mitani 1965, Sen and Ghosh 1963, Sen and Gupta 1969, Agnello et al 1966. However, almost all of these studies have been performed for the case of a perpendicular magnetic field where, owing to the presence of the magnetic field, not only the breakdown field is reduced, but resonance occurs when the frequency of the applied electric field is equal to the electron cyclotron frequency.…”