Dissociative recombination of D$_2$H$^+$: comparison between recent storage-ring results and theoretical calculations

The most up-to-date theoretical calculation on the dissociative recombination (DR) of D2H+ predicts a 2-5 times lower rate coefficient than that obtained experimentally at the Test Storage Ring (TSR). In order to verify the validity either of the experimental results or the theoretical calculations we have studied the DR of D2H+ at the storage ring CRYRING. The rate coefficient has been measured over the interaction energy range from approximate to 0 eV to 50 eV and has been found to have a peak at about 10 eV with a value of 1.6 x 10(-8) cm(3) s(-1), which is in excellent agreement with the result reported from TSR. Taking into account the electron temperature distributions, excellent agreement between the two storage rings measurements is also obtained at smaller interaction energies. The branching fraction analysis has been performed at approximate to 0 eV interaction energy and revealed the following results at the 1 sigma confidence level: N(D+D+H)=76.5%+/-2.2%, N(D-2+H)= 10.0%+/-0.7%, and N(DH+D)=13.5%+/-1.5%. The value of 2N(D-2+H)/N(DH+D)=1.48+/-0.22 implies that formation of D-2 is more favorable than DH.