Nonimaging Optics has shown that it achieves the theoretical limits by utilizing thermodynamic principles rather than conventional optics. Hence in this paper the condition of the "best" design are both defined and fulfilled in the framework of thermodynamic arguments, which we believe has profound consequences for the designs of thermal and even photovoltaic systems, even illumination and optical communication tasks. This new way of looking at the problem of efficient concentration depends on probabilities, geometric flux field and radiative heat transfer while “optics” in the conventional sense recedes into the background. Some of the new development of flow line designs will be introduced and the connection between the thermodynamics and flow line design will be officially formulated in the framework of geometric flux field. A new way of using geometric flux to design nonimaging optics will be introduced. And finally, we discuss the possibility of 3D ideal nonimaing optics.

Date Published: 14 September 2016
PDF: 8 pages
Proc. SPIE 9955, Nonimaging Optics: Efficient Design for Illumination and Solar Concentration XIII—Commemorating the 50th Anniversary of Nonimaging Optics, 99550I (14 September 2016); doi: 10.1117/12.2239176

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 9955:
Nonimaging Optics: Efficient Design for Illumination and Solar Concentration XIII—Commemorating the 50th Anniversary of Nonimaging Optics
Roland Winston; Jeffrey M. Gordon, Editor(s)