Lifetime of an emitting molecule near a partially reflecting surface

Abstract

A classical treatment of energy transfer in metal insulator systems is presented. The approach involves the calculation of the radiation field of an emitting molecule near a partially reflecting surface. The modification of the image theory result produces a large correction when the molecule is near the surface. This in turn produces a correction to the calculated lifetime of the molecule as a function of distance from the surface that differs substantially from previous theoretical descriptions of this system and brings the theory into good agreement with experiment.