Dissociation energy and ionization potentials of molecules and molecular ions in a collisional hydrogen plasma

It is shown that the dissociation energies of a hydrogen molecule and a hydrogen molecular ion are virtually independent of the screening length of the Coulomb potential in plasma even at densities for which the decrease in the ionization potential of the molecule reaches 30%. For this reason, ionization of hydrogen in high-temperature shock-wave experiments should occur in a molecular phase with the formation of the molecular ion. (C) 1997 American Institute of Physics.