invention of fig2 will be obvious to those skilled in the art of optics lens design and anti reflection coatings for example the tilt angle 21 of the surface 13 with respect to the incident light ray can be adjusted to be at an advantageous angle one such angle is that which allows the incident lightwave to encounter the interfaces 13 18 19 20 at or near brewster 39 s angle minimizing reflections for one polarization in another embellishment one or more of the interfaces 13 18 19 20 are modified to have anti reflection coatings which serve to reduce fresnel reflections between zones of non identical refractive index alternatively instead of providing anti reflection coatings at the interfaces 18 19 the composition used in the active region 16 can be designed to be index matched to the optical glass or plastic materials 14 15 which form the sandwich structure in another embellishment the planar sheets 14 15 could individually be replaced with more complexly shaped structures such as curved lenses in yet another embellishment the localized heating elements described above for heating the active medium 16 could be independently controlled to afford a control matrix of attenuation elements across the entire face of the device such a configuration could find use as a display image amplitude equalizer or a holographic image amplitude equalizer it will be further obvious to those skilled in the art of imaging technology that the invented device can be combined with other devices such as flat panel displays planar imaging detector arrays and the like so as to impart advantageous properties to those other devices a composition is prepared by heating the following ingredients to above.