Patent ID: 8633377

Claim:
A method for designing an imaging, aplanatic optical concentrator comprising a front surface with a one-way light admitting portion, a back surface with a reflective portion, and an interior region of refractive material disposed therebetween, the method comprising: determining shapes of the front and back surfaces by: defining an Abbe sphere with radius b; defining an initial ray parallel to an optical axis of the concentrator, wherein the initial ray is incident upon the front surface at a position for an initial front surface point located on the Abbe sphere; selecting a position along the optical axis for an initial back surface point; determining a surface tangent slope at each of the initial front surface point and the initial back surface point by requiring that light from the initial ray: refracts at the initial front surface point, propagates along a propagation path through the interior region to the initial back surface point, reflects from the initial back surface point, propagates back along the same propagation path to the initial front surface point, reflects from the initial front surface point due to total internal reflection, and propagates to a center of the Abbe sphere; and iteratively determining positions and tangent slopes at additional front and back surfaces points based on the positions of and surface tangent slopes at the initial front and back surface points.