The 2012 plasma roadmap

Low-temperature plasma physics and technology are diverse and interdisciplinary fields. The plasma parameters can span many orders of magnitude and applications are found in quite different areas of daily life and industrial production. As a consequence, the trends in research, science and technology are difficult to follow and it is not easy to identify the major challenges of the field and their many sub-fields. Even for experts the road to the future is sometimes lost in the mist. Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics is addressing this need for clarity and thus providing guidance to the field by this special Review article, The 2012 Plasma Roadmap. Although roadmaps are common in the microelectronic industry and other fields of research and development, constructing a roadmap for the field of low-temperature plasmas is perhaps a unique undertaking. Realizing the difficulty of this task for any individual, the plasma section of the Journal of Physics D Board decided to meet the challenge of developing a roadmap through an unusual and novel concept. The roadmap was divided into 16 formalized short subsections each addressing a particular key topic. For each topic a renowned expert in the sub-field was invited to express his/her individual visions on the status, current and future challenges, and to identify advances in science and technology required to meet these challenges. Together these contributions form a detailed snapshot of the current state of the art which clearly shows the lifelines of the field and the challenges ahead. Novel technologies, fresh ideas and concepts, and new applications discussed by our authors demonstrate that the road to the future is wide and far reaching. We hope that this special plasma science and technology roadmap will provide guidance for colleagues, funding agencies and government institutions. If successful in doing so, the roadmap will be periodically updated to continue to help in guiding the field.