Design and fabrication of freeform mirrors generating prescribed far-field irradiance distributions

Appl Opt. 2020 Jun 1;59(16):5006-5012. doi: 10.1364/AO.393896.

Abstract

We consider a method for designing freeform mirrors generating prescribed irradiance distributions in the far field. The method is based on the formulation of the problem of calculating a ray mapping as a Monge-Kantorovich mass transportation problem and on the reduction of the latter problem to a linear assignment problem. As examples, we design freeform mirrors generating a uniform irradiance distribution in a rectangular region and a complex chessboard-shaped distribution. The mirror generating a rectangular irradiance distribution is fabricated and experimentally investigated. The experimental results are in good agreement with the numerical simulations and confirm the manufacturability of the mirrors designed using the considered method.