Production and destruction of D(-) by charge transfer in metal vapors

Experimental studies of D(-) collisions are of interest for basic physics, where experimental results can be used to test theoretical models for charge transfer, and for applications to ion sources for accelerators and for heating magnetically confined plasmas of interest for fusion. The high D(-) yield from charge transfer in a thick cesium-vapor target is consistent with recent cross section calculations and measurments. Recent theoretical calculations of cross sections in thick alkaline earth vapor targets, leading to prediction of a large D(-) yield at low energy, have been partially confirmed in recent measurments, in which a D(-) yield of 50% was observed at a D energy of 500 eV.