The non-vanishing penetration depth of an evanescent wave opens an alternative way of heating a plasma: Instead of traversing the plasma, the conductivity of the plasma enables the wave to propagate along the plasma surface. The wave energy is then transferred to the plasma by an evanescent wave which enters the plasma perpendicular to its surface and decays exponentially with the skin depth. Transfer mechanism allows to generate over-dense plasmas with electron densities beyond the critical density.