Abstract
We establish a fundamental bound on the field of view over which strictly uniform far-field irradiance can be achieved in symmetric two-dimensional (2D, troughlike) and three-dimensional (3D, conelike) illumination systems. Earlier results derived for particular 2D devices are shown to be special cases of the general formula. For a rotationally symmetric 3D luminaire with a Lambertian disk light source and a prescribed uniform core region half-angle θc, no more than tan2(θc) can be projected within a uniform core region. Hence the efficiency with which such illuminators can produce uniform flux is severely limited for many problems of practical interest. Guided by the tailored edge-ray device formalism for the design of 2D luminaires, we develop a 3D reflector that produces extremely uniform far-field illuminance.
© 1998 Optical Society of America
Full Article | PDF ArticleMore Like This
P. T. Ong, J. M. Gordon, and A. Rabl
Appl. Opt. 35(22) 4361-4371 (1996)
P. T. Ong, J. M. Gordon, and A. Rabl
Appl. Opt. 34(34) 7877-7887 (1995)
Daniel Feuermann, Jeffrey M. Gordon, and Harald Ries
Appl. Opt. 37(10) 1835-1844 (1998)