ELLIPTIC TROUGH REFLECTOR FOR THE COLLECTION OF LIGHT FROM LINEAR SOURCES

A trough reflector with a reflective, truncated elliptical surface was designed to efficiently collect freely propagating light from a linea r source. The source was placed at one focus of the reflector, and lig ht was collected through a rectangular aperture near the second focus. Collection efficiency was much greater than that of a spherical integ rator and approximate to 6.5x greater than that of an objective lens; as much as approximate to 55% of the light could be captured from the full aperture. This reflector could be used to efficiently collect sur face fluorescence excited by use of evanescent waves in fluorescence-b ased fiber optic or capillary waveguide sensors. (C) 1998 Optical Soci ety of America.