Plasma modelling at Eindhoven University - Plasimo

Originel title : Modelling Metal Vapour Lasers with Plasimo Institute of Solid State Physics. With the advent of cheap, yet powerful computers, self-consistent modelling has become a viable tool for understanding, designing and improving technological and scientific plasma sources. Nowadays multi-dimensional models which are capable of simulating time-dependent discharge behaviour are in use at various universities and research institutes. One such computer code is Plasimo [1], the PLasma SImulation MOdel which is being developed at Eindhoven University of Technology. At present, Plasimo has been used for the modelling of Inductively Coupled Plasma (ICP) sources, the Cascaded Arc, inductive light sources, fluorescent lamps, microwave plasma lamps and other sources. In this contribution we will first discuss Plasimo's past performance. We will then move on to a discussion of its present design and feature set, followed by a presentation of possible future directions. We will conclude with an invitation to interested parties for co-development of the Plasimo sources. These will be made available under a free software license