An optical coupler of natural light guiding system based on stepped structure

Po-Hsuan Pan; Yi-Yung Chen; Allen Jong-Woei Whang

doi:10.1117/12.825272

20 August 2009 An optical coupler of natural light guiding system based on stepped structure

Po-Hsuan Pan, Yi-Yung Chen, Allen Jong-Woei Whang

Proceedings Volume 7423, Nonimaging Optics: Efficient Design for Illumination and Solar Concentration VI; 74230I (2009) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.825272
Event: SPIE Optical Engineering + Applications, 2009, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

For saving energy and healthy lighting, many researches focus on the sunlight illumination system. A Natural Light Guiding System can be separated into collecting, transmitting, and lighting parts. With a cascadable concentrator in the collecting part, the transmitting part will use large number of fibers. It means the most of cost is on the transmitting part. With an N to 1 coupler, the number of lightpipe can be reduced quickly. In general, the optical coupler is tapered structure. According to the Etendue principle, however, the product of beam angle and area is contact. The beam angle of coupled sunlight will increase that isn't easy coupled again and transmitted with long distance. The total energy of the exit beam from the N to 1 coupler should be bigger than the energy of one incident beam. In this paper, we use stepped structure to design an optical coupler for coupling N to 1. In the research, the Natural Light Guiding System with the optical coupler is simulated, and we evaluate the parameters of the stepped structure. Finally, we analyze the coupled efficiency of the coupler.

Citation Download Citation

Po-Hsuan Pan, Yi-Yung Chen, and Allen Jong-Woei Whang "An optical coupler of natural light guiding system based on stepped structure", Proc. SPIE 7423, Nonimaging Optics: Efficient Design for Illumination and Solar Concentration VI, 74230I (20 August 2009); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.825272

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