The species properties can be defined in the species block that starts with the SPECIES keyword. It is possible to define species properties using preset data by using the keyword PRESETSPECIESDATA, or set the properties manually using the keyword USERDEFINED. Both options automatically set the species properties in the section General Parameters of a given Species feature. The block below shows how to use preset data to define species properties.

The PRESETSPECIESDATA keyword below SPECIES indicates that preset species data is used. On the left of = a tag of an existent species should be used and on the right of = a preset species data can be assigned to the existent data. The line Ars=Ar reads: the species with tag Ars is set with the preset species data of Ar (which is argon). Note that ions have a tag that is different than the species name. A positive ion with name Ar+ has the tag Ar_1p and the negative ion O- as the tag O_1m. To see a feature’s tag, go to Model Tree Node Text and select Tag.

The USERDEFINED keyword below SPECIES indicates that species properties are defined manually. on the left of ! a tag of an existent species should be used and on the right of ! four numbers separated by spaces should be set. These numbers are, in order, the Molar mass, Potential characteristic length, Potential energy minimum, and Dipole moment.

It is also possible to set species thermodynamic parameters using the keyword THERMODYNAMICPARAMETERS as shown in the block below. Within a block the thermodynamic parameters for multiple species can be defined on after another. For a single species, the parameters are defined with four lines. The first line defines the species tag followed by the Additional enthalpy contribution. The second line is in order: Lower temperature limit, Middle temperature limit, and Upper temperature limit. The third and fourth lines are the Polynomial coefficients, low and the Polynomial coefficients, high, respectively.

Since each reaction group feature can already read the data file by itself, the main responsibility of the Plasma Chemistry Import feature is to identify different types of the REACTIONGROUP blocks, create and set up the corresponding Reaction Group features, and tell these features to only read the corresponding blocks from the same data file. To enable the Reaction Group feature to only read certain blocks, label is introduced.

Each REACTIONGROUP data block can optionally have a customized label, defined using the annotation @label(AAA) right above the block keyword, where AAA is the label itself. This label will be used when reading data blocks By label.

The data format for defining reactions within reaction group blocks can be found in Reaction Group.

Surface reactions can be defined using a block starting with SURFACEREACTIONS as shown in the block below. The formula is defined on the left of ! and on the right of ! the Forward sticking coefficient, Secondary emission coefficient, and the Mean energy of secondary electron are defined.

The surface reaction group block allows to set a large set of surface reactions in a single feature on the same boundary. Surface reactions with different Boundary Selection should be separated into different surface reaction group blocks. A surface reaction group block can be started using the keyword SURFACEREACTIONGROUP.

The way Plasma Chemistry Import feature collaborates with Surface Reaction Group features is the same as with Reaction Group features. Therefore the same labeling rules also apply here, see Naming blocks using labels for more details.

The data format for defining surface reactions within surface reaction group blocks can be found in Surface Reaction Group.

When specifying reactions within reaction group and surface reaction group blocks, it is common to see that many reactions are essentially the same reaction with the same reaction rates, except that the reactants and products involved in the reaction formula are different. For example, the heavy species reactions for SF6 plasma can be specified as

There are two types of generic reactions with keywords GenericCombination and GenericPair. A regular reaction line can be turned into a generic reaction line by appending these keywords to the end of the line, separated by delimiter “!”. For example, the reactions shown above can be re-written using GenericCombination as

, or using GenericPair as