Formation of a Refracted Electromagnetic Wave at the Output from a Plane-Parallel Dielectric Layer and Interference Nature of Fermat’s Principle

It is shown that a transition layer representing a spatial region in which field propagation is analogous to refraction in an inhomogeneous medium exists after a dielectric layer. In this region located within the near field zone the direction of the wave vector of the transmitted field varies smoothly, and with increasing distance from the layer, approaches to that of the wave incident on the layer. It is shown that such behavior of the field and occurrence of the transition layer are caused by the interference of the incident wave field and the fields of secondary sources excited in the dielectric by the incident wave field. It is shown that the refraction of the field in a homogeneous medium after the dielectric corresponds to Fermat’s principle, and the interference nature of Fermat’s principle is justified.