an optical illumination system is comprised of : a light source means having a reflective emitting surface and an intrinsic luminance , a light transmitting means ; a light reflecting means to reflect and recycle a portion of the light emitted by the light source means back to the light source means ; and a light extracting means to extract a portion of the light from the light transmitting means and direct the light to the output of the illumination system . the resulting illumination system achieves an enhanced output luminance . under certain conditions , it is possible to achieve an output luminance that is greater than the intrinsic luminance of the bare light source .