Diffraction by a dielectric half-plane

The problem of diffraction of a plane electromagnetic wave by a dielectric half-plane is reconsidered for solution by utilizing a set of recently developed approximate boundary conditions and the Wiener-Hopf technique. It is observed from the present solution of the problem that reflected waves cease to exist if the angle of incidence takes up the valuetan⁻¹(1/n)wherenrepresents the refractive index of the material of the half-plane under consideration. Expression for the diffracted far field is obtained by using a modification of the saddle point method, and numerical values of the diffraction coefficients are presented in the form of a table for a special value of the refractive indexnand for different values of the parameterkh, hrepresenting the (small) thickness of the half-plane andkthe wavenumber.