About the solver

Swarm parameters are calculated here using BOLSIG+ (ver. 1.2) solver for the numerical solution of the Boltzmann equation for electrons in weakly ionized gases in uniform electric fields, conditions which typically appear in the bulk of collisional low-temperature plasmas. It has been developed by Gerjan Hagelaar (LAPLACE, France).

Note that BOLSIG+ makes use of the classical "2-term approximation". Some of the data sets on this site were developed for use with Monte Carlo or "multiterm" Boltzmann solvers and errors may be introduced by the 2-term approximation used in BOLSIG+. We have tried to indicate when this could be of concern. Please consult BOLSIG+ for the details and to download the complete freeware application for Windows.

Users of this site are kindly requested to reference to BOLSIG+ and the appropriate cross section databases in all publications making use of data from this site.