Data Needs for Modeling Low-Temperature Non-Equilibrium Plasmas: The LXCat Project, History, Perspectives and a Tutorial

TLDR

Non‑equilibrium, low‑temperature plasmas underpin many modern technologies, and accurate modeling of electron and ion collisions with neutrals is essential for understanding and optimizing these systems. LXCat is an open‑access, web‑based platform that stores, exchanges, and manipulates the data required to model the electron and ion components of such plasmas, and this review discusses its history, future prospects, and provides a tutorial. The platform supports electron and ion scattering cross‑sections, interaction potentials, oscillator strengths, and swarm/transport parameters, and offers online tools for data comparison, plotting, and generating swarm parameters and reaction rates via an integrated electron Boltzmann solver.

Abstract

Technologies based on non-equilibrium, low-temperature plasmas are ubiquitous in today’s society. Plasma modeling plays an essential role in their understanding, development and optimization. An accurate description of electron and ion collisions with neutrals and their transport is required to correctly describe plasma properties as a function of external parameters. LXCat is an open-access, web-based platform for storing, exchanging and manipulating data needed for modeling the electron and ion components of non-equilibrium, low-temperature plasmas. The data types supported by LXCat are electron- and ion-scattering cross-sections with neutrals (total and differential), interaction potentials, oscillator strengths, and electron- and ion-swarm/transport parameters. Online tools allow users to identify and compare the data through plotting routines, and use the data to generate swarm parameters and reaction rates with the integrated electron Boltzmann solver. In this review, the historical evolution of the project and some perspectives on its future are discussed together with a tutorial review for using data from LXCat.