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

Introduced: September 1968

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.

Of 8 combined children, 4 exist in both systems.

4 codes are CPC-only extensions.

Note: 4 CPC extensions are marked as secondary classification only.

1 shared codes have differing titles between IPC and CPC.

Child Classifications

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G02F 1/00 Devices or arrangements for the control of the intensity, colour, phase, polarisation or direction of light arriving from an independent light source, e.g. switching, gating or modulating; Non-linear optics +1 CPC IPC+CPC Available in IPC and CPC
G02F 2/00 Demodulating light; Transferring the modulation of modulated light; Frequency-changing of light (G02F1/35 takes precedence) +2 CPC IPC+CPC Available in IPC and CPC
G02F 2201/00 Constructional arrangements not provided for in groups G02F1/00 - G02F7/00 2nd only +27 CPC CPC only CPC only
G02F 2202/00 Materials and properties 2nd only +22 CPC CPC only CPC only
G02F 2203/00 Function characteristic 2nd only +39 CPC CPC only CPC only
G02F 2413/00 Indexing scheme related to G02F1/13363, i.e. to birefringent elements, e.g. for optical compensation, characterised by the number, position, orientation or value of the compensation plates 2nd only +13 CPC CPC only CPC only
G02F 3/00 Optical logic elements; Optical bistable devices IPC+CPC Available in IPC and CPC
G02F 7/00 Optical analogue/digital converters IPC+CPC Available in IPC and CPC