Aplanatic systems have been of historical importance ever since Ernst Carl Abbe formulated the sine condition and its consequent implications on the elimination of certain aberration types resulting in significant improvement in their optical performance. These class of systems were designed primarily for microscopic objectives. More recently, these systems have found acceptance in the non-imaging design community as concentrators that approach the thermodynamic limit.

The so-called RX optical geometry, where R denotes a refractive primary surface and X a reflective secondary one, was introduced in 1995 and has since gained widespread importance. But the entire classes of subsequently similar RX architectures were not explored until now. This Optics Letters article by Mashaal et al. provides a comprehensive summary of all relevant RX geometries. It also presents new hybrid RX geometry along with its characteristics and performance metrics when used as a concentrator and a collimator.

One important characteristic of the classification presented in this paper for the various RX systems is that the parameters used in it have physical implications, i.e., they have a direct consequence on the system’s practical feasibility. This kind of a classification makes it easy to explore application-specific designs. One such design analyzed in detail is the hybrid RX geometry and its use as a concentrator and an illuminaire. This axis-symmetric RX aplanat optic is a TIR lens and is relatively compact when compared to its counterparts. Detailed ray tracing results are presented and the advantages of such architecture in the IR regime are well elaborated.

This article will definitely pave way for other hybrid application-specific designs based on the classification scheme presented in it.

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