The decay of an excited molecule near a small metal sphere is considered from the viewpoint of electromagnetic theory. The total decay rate of the emitting dipole is obtained by considering the two mechanisms through which energy is dissipated. One is the radiative loss, which is calculated from the Poynting vector, and the other is the nonradiative decay which is calculated from the Ohmic losses inside the sphere. Numerical computations are performed for the case of a molecule near a small silver sphere, and the results are compared with those for a molecule near the planar boundary of a silver half-space.

Contents 1. Introduction . 2. Theory for polariton modes . 2.1. The Helmholtz equations for the polariton modes. 2.2. Solutions of the polariton mode equations 2.3. The properties of the polariton modes, 2.4. An alternative choice of the boundary conditions . 2.5. Optical properties . 3. Theory for pure phonon modes 3.1. The equations for phonons in finite samples 3.2. Examples . 3.3. Optical properties of small samples 3.4. Complex cubic crystals . 3.5. Uniaxial crystals . 4. Infrared absorption (experimental) . 4.1. Experimental work on powdered samples 4.2. Experimental work on cylinders and slabs 5.1. Raman scattering .

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