Electrical conductivity of nonideal hydrogen plasma at megabar dynamic pressures

The electrical conductivity of a nonideal hydrogen plasma is measured under shock-wave compression to pressures similar to 1.5 Mbar. It is found that the conductivity increases sharply (by five orders of magnitude) at a densi ty rho similar to 0.3-0.4 g/cm(3), reaching close to liquid-metal values si milar to 10(3) S/cm. The data obtained can be described by a nonideal-plasm a model taking into account the increase in the number of conduction electr ons as a result of "ionization by pressure." (C) 1999 American Institute of Physics. [S0021-3640(99)00812-9].