Wavelength-energy correlation

Chemical Reactions Induced by High-Energy Radiation Table 5.10 Wavelength—energy correlation for photons. 

Electronic transitions in molecules need energies correlated to wavelengths that are in the range of the ultraviolet (UV) and visible spectral regions. The absorption of a UV or visible photon by a molecule induces changes in the distribution of the electrons surrounding the nuclei, and in the forces between the atomic nuclei of a molecule. As a result, molecules in electronically excited states often have very different chemical and physical properties than their electronic ground states. 

Third, there are clear differences in the images for dissociation at the same wavelength while probing different spin-orbit states. Two effects contribute to these differences. One is the slight difference in energy in the atomic states, most easily seen in the data at 234 nm where the 0(3P2) data clearly has the strong contribution from vibrationally-excited O2 while the other spin-orbit states do not. In this case the threshold for the dynamical process that forms the vibrationally-excited products has been crossed by the 158.265 cm-1 of the spin-orbit excitation. The second effect is that due to the nature of the J-level. It is known that there is a v—J correlation from the angular fits as well as from the fact that when the polarization of the... 

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