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

Last revised: January 1985

Classification Context

Section:: PHYSICS
Class:: OPTICS
Subclass:: 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.

Scope Notes

Glossary: control when referred to light or optical, covers affecting or directing one or more of the following properties of light: intensity; colour; phase; frequency or wavelength; polarisation; direction; and one or more of the following optical operations: gating; switching or deflecting; modulation, demodulation or transfer of modulation. light applies to electromagnetic radiation not only in the portion of the electromagnetic spectrum which can be perceived by the human eye (i.e. visible) but also to ultraviolet or infrared radiation. optical optics applies not only to visible light but also to ultraviolet or infrared radiation. | Limiting references: Lasers using stimulated Brillouin or Raman effect | Application references: Optical computing devices Modulators for heads used in optical recording or reproducing

Related Keywords

modulating or demodulating LIGHT

4 direct subcodes

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
G02F 2/00 Demodulating light; Transferring the modulation of modulated light; Frequency-changing of light
G02F 3/00 Optical logic elements; Optical bistable devices
G02F 7/00 Optical analogue/digital converters