Temperature Dependence of Dissociative Recombination

Calculations of the dissociative-recombination rate for diatomic molecular ions and electrons are reported for various arrangements of the potential-energy curves. The temperature variation is shown to be different for the two possible heating mechanisms: selective electron heating or total gas heating. An attempt is made to correlate the afterglow and shock-tube measurements of the recombination rate for nitric oxide and neon. This attempt fails, and this suggests the need for further studies.