Abstract

It is now well established¹ that the rate of spontaneous emission for a given transition is not an immutable property of matter but exhibits strong coupling with the electromagnetic environment. The classical model of a harmonically bound charge reacting to its own scattered field was developed² to explain anomalies observed in the lifetime of excited states of molecules positioned near metallic surfaces. Such a model quantitatively agrees with experimental data.³ Other approaches^4,5 using quantum electrodynamics have led to essentially the same predictions.

© 1991 Optical Society of America