Where to find, and how to generate, electron collision data for plasma applications

Modelling and interpreting plasma behaviour requires a detailed understanding of the collision processes taking place between the constituent species in the plasma. As such, obtaining accurate and complete data, including cross sections and rate coefficients, for electron collisions with atoms, ions, and molecules, is of great importance to plasma physicists. One can attempt to find this information in the literature, or more conveniently through the growing number of electron collision databases now available. However, in the unfortunate scenario where the desired collision data does not exist, new calculations, which are often complex and time-consuming, will have to be performed.

In this workshop I will present a selection of contemporary databases containing electron collision data and discuss their applications and limitations. This will include community databases such as the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Atomic Spectra Database [1] and LXCat [2], method specific databases including the Convergent Close Coupling Database [3], and the Portal for High-Precision Atomic Data and Computation [4], and enterprise databases such as Quantemol-DB [5]. For plasma physicists and other interested parties who would like to perform their own electron collision calculations, I will also demonstrate the use of the Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Sciences Gateway (AMOSGateway) [6]. The AMOSGateway provides an intuitive user interface to some of the most commonly used electron collision codes, as well as tutorials, sample inputs, and a community allocation on national-tier supercomputers.





[1] https://www.nist.gov/pml/atomic-spectra-database

[2] https://nl.lxcat.net/home/

[3] https://atom.curtin.edu.au/CCC-WWW/

[4] https://www1.udel.edu/atom/index.html

[5] https://www.quantemol.com/

[6] https://amosgateway.org/