Introduction to Nonimaging Optics, 2nd Edition

3

Design of Two-Dimensional Concentrators

3.1 Introduction

The compound parabolic concentrator (CPC) is a 2-D concentrator designed for capturing and concentrating a radiation field with a given angular aperture, onto a flat receiver. This radiation field can be thought of as being created by an infinitely large source at an infinite distance. The edge rays of the incoming radiation come from the edges of the (infinite) source, and are concentrated onto the edges of the receiver. This basic principle can be used to generate many other nonimaging devices. Its generalization is called the “edge-ray principle” and is the basis of nonimaging optics.

This chapter explores generalizations of the CPC design. These include, for example, different ...