Introduction to Nonimaging Optics

The world's insatiable consumption of energy must be met with new technologies that offer alternative, environmentally conscious sources of light and power. The relatively young field of nonimaging optics is an ideal tool for designing optimized solar energy collectors and illumination optics and holds great promise in the development of solid state lighting applications. Introduction to Nonimaging Optics provides the first entry-level resource on this rapidly developing field. The book is divided into two sections: the first one deals with nonimaging optics-its main concepts and design methods. The second summarizes general concepts, including rays and wave fronts, reflection and refraction, and symmetry. The author makes a point to relate nonimaging to other popular fields, such as thermodynamics, radiometry, photometry radiation heat transfer and classical mechanics. He also provides useful examples at the end of each chapter. Introduction to Nonimaging optics invites newcomers to explore a growing field and delivers a comprehensive reference to those already working in optics, illumination engineering or solar energy collection and concentration.