We all know that at a certain refractive index step and angle, a beam (or waves in general) hitting this intersection is reflected back into the medium where it came from. Usually, this phenomenon is linked with two transparent materials (glass and water, glass and air, etc). But what happens if one of these materials is not perfectly transparent, like an opaque polymer? Is the evanescent field appearing in the second medium affected, or is there no difference to transparent media?
Edit 2018 - the answer is that the evanescent field is absorbed, scattered etc., and the intensity of eventually reflected light is lower from these effects.
The situation has been studied in detailed and the subject has been developed to a large length. There are several books written on this topic.
You may search under the topic Attenuated total reflection (ATR) or attenuated total internal reflection.
Yes the evanescent field intensity is reduced because it is absorbed.
sir, we change the condition because we need TIR . So the light from absorbing material to transparent material, we achieve TIR. Anyway if absorbing process will reduce the TIR process.
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