Abstract
We have derived analytic expressions for the angular distribution of light emitted by an atomic system, e.g., a fluorescent molecule, located in a dielectric medium 1 at distance z0 from the interface to a different dielectric medium 2. The theory is rigorously valid for electric and magnetic dipole transitions with arbitrary orientation of the dipole transition moment. (In Paper II [ J. Opt. Soc. Am. 57, 1615– 1619 ( 1977)], only the special case of dipoles oriented perpendicular to the interface had been treated.) The radiation patterns of dipoles located on the interface (z0 = 0) and oriented parallel to it, and ensembles of such dipoles radiating incoherently with randomly oriented dipole moments were examined in particular. They differ greatly from the corresponding well-known dipole radiation patterns in an unbounded medium 1, due to the wide-angle interferences of emitted plane waves, and radiation from evanescent waves in the dipole’s near field into medium 2, if this is denser than medium 1.
© 1979 Optical Society of America
Full Article | PDF ArticleMore Like This
W. Lukosz and R. E. Kunz
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 67(12) 1615-1619 (1977)
W. Lukosz and R. E. Kunz
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 67(12) 1607-1615 (1977)
W. Lukosz
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 71(6) 744-754 (1981)