Excited State
Excitation is an elevation in energy level above an arbitrary baseline energy state. In physics there is a specific technical definition for energy level which is often associated with an atom being excited to an excited state.
In quantum mechanics an excited state of a system (such as an atom, molecule or nucleus) is any quantum state of the system that has a higher energy than the ground state (that is, more energy than the absolute minimum). The temperature of a group of particles is indicative of the level of excitation (with the notable exception of systems that exhibit Negative temperature).
The lifetime of a system in an excited state is usually short: spontaneous or induced emission of a quantum of energy (such as a photon or a phonon) usually occurs shortly after the system is promoted to the excited state, returning the system to a state with lower energy (a less excited state or the ground state). This return to a lower energy level is often loosely described as decay and is the inverse of excitation.
Long-lived excited states are often called metastable. Long-lived nuclear isomers and singlet oxygen are two examples of this.
Read more about Excited State: Atomic Excitation, Perturbed Gas Excitation, Calculation of Excited States, Reaction
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