Electromagnetic wave scattering from and penetration into layered bodies are usually analysed by using coupled surface integral equations associated with all the interfaces between their homogeneous layers. In this paper, a procedure is proposed where the global system of integral equations is reduced to a system only containing the unknowns relative to one interface, with the unknowns for the
... [Show full abstract] other interfaces being obtained by recursion. This yields a substantially more efficient numerical computation as compared with available computation techniques based on coupled integral equations.