The LisbOn KInetics (LoKI) Suite

Public release of LoKI-GM

The N-PRiME group (N-Plasmas Reactive: Modelling and Engineering) of IPFN has publicly released the LisbOn Kinetics Global Model (LoKI-GM), an open-source simulation framework for the modelling of low-temperature plasmas (LTPs). The software was officially launched during the 27th Europhysics Conference on Atomic and Molecular Physics of Ionized Gases (ESCAMPIG 2026), held in Funchal, Madeira.

LoKI-GM enables researchers to simulate the behaviour of pure gases and gas mixtures under a wide range of operating conditions (glow DC/HF, post-discharge, pulsed), providing a self-consistent description of plasma chemistry and transport processes. The framework combines two complementary modules: LoKI-B, an electron Boltzmann solver that describes electron kinetics, and LoKI-C, a chemistry solver that models the kinetics of charged and neutral species in both the gas volume and at surfaces. The two modules can operate either independently or in a fully coupled manner.

Developed in MATLAB as part of the LisbOn KInetics (LoKI) suite, LoKI-GM v26.07 is distributed under the GNU General Public License v3.0, making it freely available to the international scientific community of LTPs.
The current release supports steady-state, quasi-stationary and post-discharge simulations. It includes comprehensive electron-impact cross-section databases for all gases available in the IST-Lisbon database of the open-access website LXCat, a broad set of reaction-rate coefficient models, chemistry schemes for oxygen, carbon dioxide and nitrogen plasmas, and extensive user documentation in both PDF and HTML formats.

The development of LoKI-GM will continue, to expand its capabilities and extend the range of plasma configurations and physical processes that it can address.

LoKI-B++ released as part of PLASIMO

On October 1st, Plasma Matters B.V. (PM) celebrated its 10th anniversary releasing PLASIMO 10.0, demonstrating the growth of this versatile platform for plasma modelling.
PLASIMO 10 now offers built-in support for LoKI-B++, to self-consistently calculate electron energy distribution functions for the Global Model and the Drift-Diffusion model.

Coincidently with the release of PLASIMO 10, v25.10 of LoKI-B and LoKI-B++ (the very first one, in the case of the C++ code) were also released.
LoKI-B++ is a C++ counterpart of MATLAB’s LoKI-B, replicating essentially all of its original features. Both LoKI-B and LoKI-B++ are part of the LoKI tool suite and are freely available at https://github.com/LoKI-suite, for users to perform electron kinetics calculations, and for modelers / developers who are invited to continue testing the tool and/or to contribute for its development and improvement.

The LisbOn KInetics Suite is developed by the Portuguese group N-Plasmas Reactive: Modelling and Engineering (N-PRiME) of Instituto de Plasmas e Fusão Nuclear with Instituto Superior Técnico, the Departamento de Física of Facultad de Ciencias with Universidad de Córdoba and the group Elementary Processes in Gas Discharges (EPG) of the Eindhoven University of Technology which was responsible for the development of LoKI-B++.

Web-based calculations using LoKI-B++

The C++ version of LoKI-B++ is now accessible through a standalone tool that allows users to perform web-based calculations. Each simulation generates a unique address containing a specific identifier for the input file.
This ensures that the exact same input conditions and cross-section data - obtained automatically through LXCat 3.0 - can be preserved and shared, enabling full reproducibility of the simulation.
Check THIS LINK to run swarm simulations in air.

LoKI v3.1.0 and LoKI-B v2.2.0 released

Versions 3.1.0 of the LisbOn KInetics suite (LoKI) and the LisbOn KInetics Boltzmann solver (LoKI-B) were released on November 4, 2022. The new versions solve some important bugs (in LoKI-B, improving the evaluation of power in e-e collisions and solving an error in the temporal growth operator, when using the time-integration algorithm) and include some new features: in LoKI-B, a general implementation of anisotropic e-impact collisions; in LoKI-C, a new implementation of the thermal module, considering different boundary conditions; in LoKI, a major revision/update of the information displayed in the GUI, the first implementation of a logging system, and the first implementation of the coupling between LoKI-B and LoKI-C for post-discharge simulations (to be verified/extended for stability improvement and towards a full coupling between the tools, in future releases).

LoKI-MC released as open-source tool

The LisbOn Kinetics Monte Carlo (LoKI-MC) is a Monte Carlo code for electron kinetics simulations in low-temperature plasmas, excited by uniform DC electric fields from different gas mixtures. LoKI-MC is written in C++, benefiting from a highly-efficient object-oriented structure, and was released as open-source code licensed under the GNU general public license.
The code follows the strategy and data organization of the two-term counterpart LisbOn KInetics Boltzmann solver (LoKI-B), since it easily addresses any complex mixture of atomic/molecular species, describing electron collisions with any target state (electronic, vibrational and rotational), characterized by any user-prescribed population.
On input, the code requires the working conditions, the gas-mixture composition, the distributions of populations for the levels of the atomic/molecular gases considered, and the relevant sets of electron-scattering cross sections obtained from the open-access website LXCat. On output, it yields the electron energy and velocity distribution functions, the electron swarm parameters, the collision rate-coefficients, and the electron power absorbed from the electric field and transferred to the different collisional channels.

More information about LoKI-MC can be obtained from the paper T. C. Dias et al, Computer Physics Communications 108554 (2022).

Developers of LoKI-B sign license agreement with Plasma Matters B.V.

The developers of LoKI-B signed a license agreement with Plasma Matters B.V., setting a new technical and scientific collaboration to foster advances in the modelling and simulation of low temperature plasmas.
Plasma Matters is a software company that specializes in plasma modelling and numerical simulations. Plasma Matters offers scientific expertise and the industry-strength plasma simulation software PLASIMO to academic and industrial customers that employ plasma technologies.
The license agreement signed with Plasma Matters grants the company permission to convey LoKI-B as part of its own software products. The agreement will consolidate LoKI-B, contributing to widen its dissemination, and enhancing the features of PLASIMO.

More details here.

LoKI v3.0.0 and LoKI-B v2.1.0 released

Versions 3.0.0 of the LisbOn KInetics suite (LoKI) and the LisbOn KInetics Boltzmann solver (LoKI-B) were released on March 4, 2022. The new versions solve some important bugs (in the e-e collision operator, in LoKI-B; in the correct use of the electron mobility for HF simulations and in the calculations of the thermal module, in LoKI-C) and feature the first implementation of a surface kinetics (including a revision of transport functions).

LoKI-B v2.0.0 released

Version 2.0.0 of the LisbOn KInetics Boltzmann solver (LoKI-B) was released as open-source code on June 11, 2021. The new version extends the original capabilities of the numerical tool to accept time-dependent non-oscillatory electric fields as input data, and to calculate time-dependent electron energy distribution functions.
The release was simultaneous with the publication of the PSST journal article On the quasi-stationary approach to solve the electron Boltzmann equation in pulsed plasmas, by A Tejero-del-Caz et al.

Kick-off of the LisbOn KInetics website

The LisbOn KInetics (LoKI) website was released on September 15, 2019.
LoKI is a simulation tool that couples two main calculation blocks: a Boltzmann solver (LoKI-B) and a Chemical solver (LoKI-C). LoKI 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 website will bring updated information on the development of the tool and the consolidation of the corresponding kinetic schemes and data.

LoKI-B released as open-source tool

The simulation tool LisbOn KInetics (LoKI), developed in the framework of project KIT-PLASMEBA, couples two main calculation blocks: a Boltzmann solver (LoKI-B), released as open-source code on March 23, 2019, and a Chemistry solver (LoKI-C).
LoKI-B 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), characterised by any user-prescribed population.