Do Fresnel coefficients exist?

Abstract

This paper is motivated by the puzzling fact that it is not possible to recover the Fresnel coefficients by letting tend the width of a slab to infinity. To overcome this difficulty we introduce a suitable limit analysis (which has nothing to do with the so-called limiting absorption principle) and we show that it is possible to define rigorously the field diffracted by a semi-infinite periodic medium. © 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.