Page "Electromagnetic radiation" Paragraph 72
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Wikipedia
The basic structure of matter involves charged particles bound together in many different ways.
When electromagnetic radiation is incident on matter, it causes the charged particles to oscillate and gain energy.
The ultimate fate of this energy depends on the situation.
It could be immediately re-radiated and appear as scattered, reflected, or transmitted radiation.
It may also get dissipated into other microscopic motions within the matter, coming to thermal equilibrium and manifesting itself as thermal energy in the material.
With a few exceptions related to high-energy photons ( such as fluorescence, harmonic generation, photochemical reactions, the photovoltaic effect for ionizing radiations at far ultraviolet, X-ray, and gamma radiation ), absorbed electromagnetic radiation simply deposits its energy by heating the material.
This happens both for infrared, microwave, and radio wave radiation.
Intense radio waves can thermally burn living tissue and can cook food.
In addition to infrared lasers, sufficiently intense visible and ultraviolet lasers can also easily set paper afire.
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