Patent ID: 8121454

Claim:
A collector for propagating incident radiation to a remote location, comprising: a radiation directing component configured to redirect the incident electromagnetic radiation; a buffer component coupled to the radiation directing component, the buffer component configured to transport the electromagnetic radiation redirected by the radiation directing component; and a propagation component coupled to the buffer component and configured to propagate the electromagnetic radiation generally in a first direction toward a first end of the propagation component by at least total internal reflection, the propagation component including a plurality of spaced apart regions through which the electromagnetic radiation would pass as it is propagated towards the first end, an index of refraction of each of the plurality of spaced apart regions generally increases from a leading edge of the region to a peak value and then decreases towards a trailing edge of the region, the radiation directing component being positioned such that the electromagnetic radiation incident on the collector which is received into the propagation component is incident from a direction generally not parallel with the first direction of the propagation component.