Recombination of D+3 ions in the afterglow of a He-Ar-D2 plasma

We report measurements of the rate coefficient α for recombination of D+3 with electrons in a He-Ar- D2 plasma. The observed rate coefficient is dependent on the deuterium number density indicating that third-body assisted recombination is efficient and significantly contributes to recombination. When the deuterium number density is decreased to 7x1010 cm-3 , the rate coefficient also decreases to α∼6x10-9 cm 3 s-1 . These data indicate that the binary dissociative recombination of D+3 is very slow with αDR<6x10-9 cm3 s-1 . The observation of a deionization process proceeding via formation of D+5 is also reported