Particular features of the optical properties of an anisotropic metamaterial with a near-zero dielectric permittivity

The propagation of an electromagnetic wave through a layer of a uniaxial anisotropic metamaterial with the components of its permittivity tensor close to zero and the reflection of the wave from the layer have been considered. The occurrence of transmission maxima of the electromagnetic wave at specific angles of incidence has been confirmed. It has been shown that, when studying this effect, one cannot neglect the absorption, because this neglecting leads to unrealistic predictions, such as a total transmission of the wave by the layer of the anisotropic metamaterial at special angles of incidence of the wave.