Supporting Quadric Method for Designing Freeform Mirrors That Generate Prescribed Near-Field Irradiance Distributions

Abstract

We consider a version of the supporting quadric method for designing freeform mirrors that generate prescribed irradiance distributions in the near field. The method is derived for a general case of an incident beam with an arbitrary wavefront. As an example, for a practically important special case of a plane incident wavefront, we design a freeform mirror that generates a complex-shaped uniform irradiance distribution in the form of the abbreviation “IPSI” on a zero background. The designed mirror is fabricated and qualitatively investigated in a proof-of-concept optical experiment. The experimental results confirm the correctness of the proposed approach and demonstrate the manufacturability of the mirrors designed using the considered method.

Keywords

• optical design
• supporting quadric method
• geometrical optics
• nonimaging optics