A switchable liquid crystal grating cell, and methods for manufacturing the above. The switchable liquid crystal grating cell comprises a pair of switchable liquid crystal grating parts, each switchable liquid crystal grating part comprises a substrate; a conductive layer on the substrate; and a photoalignment layer with an alignment pattern above the conductive layer on the substrate, the alignment pattern having first and second types of domains, the first type of domain having a first uniform alignment direction, the second type of domain having a second uniform alignment direction that is reoriented at a predetermined angle to the first uniform alignment direction, the predetermined angle is 85-95, and a liquid crystal layer sandwiched between the pair of switchable liquid crystal grating parts, wherein an alignment pattern on a top surface is arranged to be shifted relative to the other alignment pattern on a bottom surface.

A switchable liquid crystal grating cell, and methods for manufacturing the above. The switchable liquid crystal grating cell comprises a pair of switchable liquid crystal grating parts, each switchable liquid crystal grating part comprises a substrate; a conductive layer on the substrate; and a photoalignment layer with an alignment pattern above the conductive layer on the substrate, the alignment pattern having first and second types of domains, the first type of domain having a first uniform alignment direction, the second type of domain having a second uniform alignment direction that is reoriented at a predetermined angle to the first uniform alignment direction, the predetermined angle is 85-95, and a liquid crystal layer sandwiched between the pair of switchable liquid crystal grating parts, wherein an alignment pattern on a top surface is arranged to be shifted relative to the other alignment pattern on a bottom surface.

A monolithic transmissive or reflective light valve system able to withstand operation with high optical fluence and high average power lasers is described. The light valve includes a liquid crystal layer on an alignment layer, a first epitaxial doped semiconductor transparent electrode on a photoconductor layer made of a first wide bandgap or ultrawide bandgap semi- insulating semiconductor layer (or wafer). A second epitaxial semiconductor transparent electrode layer brackets the light valve and includes a second wide bandgap or ultrawide bandgap semi-insulating, or conductive semiconductor layer (or wafer). In some embodiments, the doped epitaxial or ion implanted transparent electrode and photoconductor layers have matched coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) and further matched CTE to the second wide bandgap material bracketing the light valve. In some embodiments, the transparent electrode and photoconductor layers have matched index of refraction, along with matched photoexcitation levels.