OPTICAL DEVICES OR ARRANGEMENTS FOR THE CONTROL OF LIGHT BY MODIFICATION OF THE OPTICAL PROPERTIES OF THE MEDIA OF THE ELEMENTS INVOLVED THEREIN; NON-LINEAR OPTICS; FREQUENCY-CHANGING OF LIGHT; OPTICAL LOGIC ELEMENTS; OPTICAL ANALOGUE/DIGITAL CONVERTERS

Description

G02F covers optical devices and systems that control or manipulate light by altering the optical properties of materials, including electro-optic modulators, liquid crystal displays, nonlinear optical crystals for frequency conversion, and optical switches. This subclass encompasses technologies spanning from passive optical elements whose properties change in response to applied fields to active nonlinear processes such as harmonic generation, parametric amplification, and sum/difference frequency mixing. Also included are optical logic gates, optical computing elements, and devices for converting between optical and electrical signals, as well as photorefractive and magneto-optic materials used for beam control and data processing. Adjacent classes G02B (basic optical elements) and G02C (optical instruments) focus on conventional optical components and finished optical systems, whereas G02F emphasizes the active modification of light propagation through material property changes.