About some estimations for criterion of onset of molecular ions fragmentation in electrogasdynamic fields

Analytical estimations are obtained for rate constant of molecular ions dissociation at their motion in a gas medium under strong electric field. Deviation of ions velocity distribution from Maxwell thermal distribution is considered. This can be made in terms of effective ion temperature depending on electric field strength. Theoretical estimates obtained enable to evaluate the number of ion fragmentation collisions in the drift length and make it possible to estimate the field strength of fragmentation onset.