can someone explain this:
For a change, a question for which I have no idea of an answer.
Because I know that there are some physicists among my firends in LJ and FB. So. There is a phenomenon of polarized fluorescence. Certain fluorophores emit light in the same plane as the excitation light when being excited by polarized light. I don't understand how it is possible. Fluorescence is not some sort of reflection of light. The excitation photon is absorbed, excites something in the fluorophore molecule (sends an electron to a higher orbital or whatever), then this excitation reverses emitting another, longer wavelength photon. How does an excited electron remember in which plane to emit the photon when excitation relaxes?
Because I know that there are some physicists among my firends in LJ and FB. So. There is a phenomenon of polarized fluorescence. Certain fluorophores emit light in the same plane as the excitation light when being excited by polarized light. I don't understand how it is possible. Fluorescence is not some sort of reflection of light. The excitation photon is absorbed, excites something in the fluorophore molecule (sends an electron to a higher orbital or whatever), then this excitation reverses emitting another, longer wavelength photon. How does an excited electron remember in which plane to emit the photon when excitation relaxes?