Incoming links: Matrix exponential
Like everything else in Lie group theory, you should first look at the matrix version of this operation: the matrix exponential.
The exponential map links small transformations around the origin (infinitely small) back to larger finite transformations, and small transformations around the origin are something we can deal with a Lie algebra, so this map links the two worlds.
The idea is that we can decompose a finite transformation into infinitely arbitrarily small around the origin, and proceed just like the product definition of the exponential function.
The definition of the exponential map is simply the same as that of the regular exponential function as given at Taylor expansion definition of the exponential function, except that the argument can now be an operator instead of just a number.
Is the solution to a system of linear ordinary differential equations, the exponential function is just a 1-dimensional subcase.
Note that more generally, the matrix exponential can be defined on any ring.
The matrix exponential is of particular interest in the study of Lie groups, because in the case of the Lie algebra of a matrix Lie group, it provides the correct exponential map.
How (and why) to raise e to the power of a matrix by 3Blue1Brown (2021)
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