Abstract: A liquid crystal light valve device exhibiting improved performance capabilities fabricated using a cadmium telluride light blocking layer doped with nitrogen. Because of the incorporation of nitrogen into the cadmium telluride light blocking layer, the layer can be applied using high-speed, low-cost sputtering techniques without resulting in excessive photoconductivity or photoshading. The cost of the addition of nitrogen is minimal. The process of the present invention is amenable to precise control and wide flexibility which results in control of the quality aspects of the light blocking layer such as particulate density.

Abstract: Creation of DC fields in a liquid crystal light valve caused a DC induced transient optical phenomenon in which output brightness level undergoes a change as the DC fields are redistributed within the liquid crystal light valve. Adverse effects of the DC induced transient optical output are minimized by employing a liquid crystal material of greatly decreased resistivity, which reduces the time constant of the liquid crystal device, making it comparable to the response time of the liquid crystal material itself.