ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the mechanisms by which electromagnetic radiation (or light) propagates in a material medium, described at a macroscopic level. It specializes to the case of a dielectric, with inhomogeneity in a single direction only. The chapter begins by restating Maxwell’s equations for a macroscopic medium and discusses a situation in which the inhomogeneity in the dielectric constant is due to a plane interface between two dielectric substances. It also discusses Incident, reflected, and transmitted propagation vectors, and explains how a plane interface reflects and transmits light, irrespective of how the radiation is produced by regrouping the factors of Green’s function. Relation between field orientations for incident and reflected waves is explained. The chapter reviews total internal reflection, energy conservation, and parallel dielectric backed by conductor.
