The focus of this course is on the practical design of non-imaging optical systems through hands-on exercises at the computer. Practical examples of illumination systems, concentrators, optical filters and coherent light propagation will be tackled in commercial ray-tracing software.

In this course we:

1. introduce ray-trace simulation software (Principles of ray-tracing, sequential/non-sequential ray-tracing, Implementation of optical systems in ray-tracing software, Implementation of light sources in ray-tracing software, Evaluation of ray-trace results (spot diagrams...)),
2. gain insight in optimization an optical system (Variables and free-form surfaces, Merit functions and parameter sweeps, Optimization methodologies),
3. obtain an understanding in ‘homogenization and concentration’ of light (Basic concepts of radiometry, Analysing energy distributions, Optical components to realize uniform light distributions, Light concentration: fundamental limits),
4. analyse scattering and stray-light (Ray-multiplication, Modelling scattering, Scatter analysis methods, exercises in commercial ray-tracing software of stray-light analysis and illumination systems using scattering),
5. introduce wave optics (Limitations of standard ray-tracing, Modelling interference and diffraction by using the Gaussian beam superposition method, Design of optical systems in commercial ray-tracing software with important interference/diffraction properties (e.g. fibre coupler, interferometer, laser beam shaping));
6. investigate multilayers and colour (Principles of thin-film interference filters, The quarter-wave coating as starting design for different optical filters, Photometry and colour, Design of multilayer coatings with Essential Macleod and analysing the system performance in commercial ray-tracing software).