Decay of excited states

This chapter considers the decay of excited states. Radiative decay is a process in which a molecule discards its excitation energy as a photon. Moreover, the process can be determined to be ‘fluorescence’ or ‘phosphorescence’ depending on the nature of the excited state after the removal of exciting radiation. The chapter explains that non-radiative decay refers to the transfer of excess energy into the vibration, rotation, and translation of the surrounding molecules. It also considers the use and features of lasers, which primarily acts to discard the excess energy of an excited state by using radiation to induce stimulated emission.