Atomic Collisional Excitation

Class providing collisional excitation cooling rates (in J m\(^3\) s\(^{-1}\)) for ions of given atomic number and ionization state at a specified electron temperature. Collisional excitation followed by radiative de-excitation is a key coolant for warm ionized gas at temperatures of \(10^4\)–\(10^5\) K, particularly for metal ions such as oxygen and carbon.

Default implementation: atomicExcitationRateCollisionalScholzWalters1991

Methods

coolingRate → double precision

Return the collisional excitation cooling rate , in units of J m\(^3\) s\(^{-1}\), for ion of given atomicNumber and electronNumber at temperature T (in Kelvin).

• integer , intent(in ) :: atomicNumber, electronNumber

• double precision, intent(in ) :: temperature

atomicExcitationRateCollisionalScholzWalters1991

Atomic collisional excitation using the fitting functions of Scholz and Walters (1991).

(Default implementation)