Optical system for producing uniform line illumination

摘要

A system for creating a bright and uniform line of illumination. The "hot spot" of an arc lamp is imaged onto a narrow, circular pinhole aperture. Light passing through the pinhole aperture is collimated and passed through a second aperture (the apodizing aperture), before being focused to a line of illumination by a cylindrical lens. The spatial profile of the apodizing aperture is tailored to remove non-uniformities in the illumination source thereby allowing a highly uniform line of illumination to be created. Alternatively, the spatial profile of the apodizing aperture can be tailored to produce a line of illumination having a desired non-uniform intensity profile.