What is the fate of an excited (energetic) molecule? All molecules posses a certain amount of energy by virtue of their temperature, and this is called thermal excitation. But what about molecules that have much more energy than the average energy of room temperature molecules. In general, the greater the excitation energy a molecule possesses, the faster this energy will be dissipated or released in some way. Highly excited molecules are very reactive and may release their energy chemically, If all else fails, the molecule may radiate energy as photons. We will measure the fate of optically excited Iodine (I2) molecules as a function of time via the radiation they emit.
Theory of the Experiment