Imaging a point to a line with a single spherical mirror

Methods for imaging a single point source to a line image are discussed, and a design study of single spherical mirror systems that form aberration-free line images is presented. An expression forthe ray density along the line image is derived for such systems in the cases of (i) uniform beam profiles and (ii) Gaussian beam profiles. The resulting ray density profiles are illustrated for single spherical mirror systems over a wide range of design parameters.