[chemeng]

There will be a transfer of energy to the system if there is an interaction, but will only absorb the incident photon at specific energies. In the case of reflection in this classical view, it simply re-emits the energy back out as there are no valid energy transitions. The reality is far more complex and this thread is mixing multiple theories together, wave and particle views and simultaneously comparing single atom mechanics with those of lattices/solids. This is all causing a lot of confusion that's hard to address in comments.