New nonimaging designs: the RX and RXI concentrators

Two new nonimaging concentrators called RX and RXI are presented. Both of them have been designed with a method of design recently developed. The concentrators, formed from a single dielectric piece, achieve the optimum relation between concentration and acceptance angle in 2D. Their performance in 3D is very good when the acceptance angle of the concentrators is small (less than 5 degrees for a source at infinity): total transmissions above 95% are usually achieved (total transmission is the ratio of the etendue of those rays impinging on the entry aperture, within the acceptance angle, which reach the receiver, over the etendue of the bundle formed by all the rays impinging the receiver). These values are similar or even higher than those achieved by an equivalent CPC (same acceptance angle and same refractive index). The RX shown here have been designed for a finite source and the RXI for a source at infinity.