A theoretical consideration is made for transverse-electric polarization vectors of a transmitted field in an optically absorbing sample to derive a fluorescence intensity formula as a function of the absorption index of the sample as well as incident and observation angles in total-internal-reflection fluorescence spectroscopy. These equations are experimentally confirmed. It is shown that the angular spectrum of fluorescence intensity is the Laplace transformation of the effective penetration depth, even for the absorbing sample. High resolution of the depth profile is expected for an absorbing sample compared with a nonabsorbing one.
© 1992 Optical Society of America
Original Manuscript: June 20, 1991
Published: October 20, 1992
Minoru Toriumi, Masatoshi Yanagimachi, and Hiroshi Masuhara, "Absorption effects on total-internal-reflection fluorescence spectroscopy," Appl. Opt. 31, 6376-6382 (1992)