Plane wave diffraction by a thin dielectric half-plane

Expressions that apply for all observation points are derived for the field produced by a plane wave incident on a thin dielectric half-plane when the electric vector of the incident wave is parallel to the edge. Away from shadow boundaries the total field comprises an edge wave and a surface wave in addition to the transmitted and reflected waves of geometrical optics. The nature of the edge wave differs from that of a perfectly conducting half-plane in that both the amplitude and phase vary with the observation angle, for a given angle of incidence.