Thermalisation
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In physics, thermalisation (in American English thermalization) is the process of particles reaching thermal equilibrium through mutual interaction.
When a molecule absorbs energy, as in the technique of molecular fluorescence, the lifetime of the excited state is ~10−12 sec. Then it rapidly loses energy to the lowest level of the lowest excited state; this is called thermalization.
In general the natural tendency of a system is towards a state of equipartition of energy or uniform temperature. This raises the system’s entropy.
Examples of thermalisation include:
- the achievement of equilibrium in a plasma
- the process undergone by high-energy neutrons as they lose energy by collision.
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