The LisbOn KInetics Boltzmann solver (LoKI-B) is an open-source simulation tool (under GNU GPL 3.0) developed by members of the group N-Plasmas Reactive: Modelling and Engineering (N-PRiME) with the Instituto de Plasmas e Fusão Nuclear, leveraging on its scientific heritage in the field of non-equilibrium plasma kinetics.
LoKI-B solves the time and space independent form, or a time-dependent form, of the two-term electron Boltzmann equation, for non-magnetised non-equilibrium low-temperature plasmas excited by DC/HF electric fields from different gases or gas mixtures, and it was developed as a response to the need of having an electron Boltzmann solver easily addressing the simulation of the electron kinetics in any complex gas mixture (of atomic / molecular species), describing first and second-kind electron collisions with any target state (electronic, vibrational and rotational), characterized by any user-prescribed population. The tool is developed with flexible and upgradable object-oriented programming under MATLAB, to benefit from its matrix-based architecture, adopting an ontology that privileges the separation between tool and data.
The developers of LoKI-B signed a license agreement granting Plasma Matters permission to convey LoKI-B as part of its own software products. The agreement will promote a technical and scientific collaboration between N-PRiME, PM and EPG, aiming to consolidate LoKI-B, contributing to widen its dissemination, and enhancing the features of PLASIMO. Under this partnership, we have already started the development of LoKI-B under C++; the new version of the tool is currently under verification to be released later. The new partnership will foster also new advances in the modelling and simulation of low temperature plasmas.