Absorption and Emission of Evanescent Photons*

Abstract

Experiments have been carried out to investigate the excitation of molecules by evanescent light, and the emission of evanescent light in the fluorescence of excited molecules. It is confirmed that the absorption proceeds at a rate proportional to the second-order (normally ordered) product of the complex field amplitude, whether the light field is homogeneous or evanescent, and that the emission process follows a reciprocity principle.