ABSTRACT When a molecule is located near the surface of a medium, its optical properties change, and particular dramatic effects arise when the surface is optically active. We consider the situation of a nonlinear medium in which two pump beams create a four-wave mixer, able to phase conjugate (time reverse) weak incident radiation. On one hand, this adds a phase-conjugate replica of the vacuum of free space to the molecular environment, thereby altering the molecule`s polarizability. This in turn affects the lifetimes of excited electronic states and the absorption line shape. On the other hand, fluorescence radiation from the molecule interferes with its phase conjugate reflection, leading to novel effects which can not be observed near any linear medium. For example, we predict that an electronic molecular transition will exhibit a two-line emission spectrum, even in thermal equilibrium at zero temperature.
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