Non-Imaging Optical Design Using Differential Evolution

Abstract

The application of differential evolution to non-imaging optical design is explored here. The objective is to create a mirror shape which reflects light from a source to produce a desired light distribution in some target region. Differential evolution uses a cost measure to numerically determine the quality of a proposed solution against a desired solution and various cost measures specific to non-imaging optical design are examined. A reverse engineering strategy is used to test the design methodology for a point light source, which lends insight into the differential evolution approach, and validates it for two geometric classes of problems. In these the target distribution comes from either a parabolic mirror shape or an elliptical mirror shape. The methodology is also validated for an extended light source.