It takes a noble gas atom in an excited electronic state to form an excimer molecule such as a noble gas dimer or noble gas halide. Sufficiently high energy (approximately 10 eV) is required to obtain a noble gas atom in the lowest excited electronic state, which provides the formation of an excimer molecule. The most convenient way to excite gases is by an electric discharge. That is why such excimer molecules are generated in a plasma (see excimer molecule formation).