A liquid crystal composite tunable device for fast polarisation-independent modulation of an incident light beam comprising: (a) two supporting and functional panels made of transparent material, such as glass or transparent flexible material, at least one of them coated with a transparent conducting oxide forming a transparent conductive electrode layer patterned into pixels and with optionally at least one additional layer selected from an alignment layer, antireflective coating layer, thermochromic or electrochromic layer, photoconductive or photosensitive layer; the liquid crystal composite tunable device being characterised in comprising: (b) a composite structure sandwiched between said two panels and made of a liquid crystal and porous microparticles surrounded by said liquid crystal and infiltrated with said liquid crystal; wherein (i) said porous microparticles have an average refractive index approximately equals to one of the liquid crystal principal refractive indices and having spatial dimensions in the range of about 0.3-30 microns; (ii) an effective refractive index of the porous microparticles matches that of the liquid crystal at one orientational state (for example, parallel n ∥) of said liquid crystal and exhibits large mismatch at another orientational state (for example, perpendicular n ⊥), of said liquid crystal; (iii) a refractive index mismatch between said microparticles and said liquid crystal is tuned by applying an external electric or magnetic field, thermally or optically, wherein said transparent conductive electrode layer is patterned into pixels and said external field being applied to said each pixel separately or to a group of said pixels, thereby resulting in said device being pixelated, wherein said each pixel is adjusted to modify polarisation, intensity or phase of an optical beam, thereby turning said device into a spatial or polarisation light modulator for improving image quality and creating polarimetric or ellipsometric images; and (iv) concentration of said microparticles in said composite is in the range of 0.1%- 50% for providing optimum contrast of the device upon switching it between different orientational states of the liquid crystal, when said device is used as a scattering device, and less than 0.1% for avoiding significant light scattering, when said device is used as a spectrum, phase or polarisation modulator. (a) two supporting and functional panels made of transparent material, such as glass or transparent flexible material, at least one of them coated with a transparent conducting oxide forming a transparent conductive electrode layer patterned into pixels and with optionally at least one additional layer selected from an alignment layer, antireflective coating layer, thermochromic or electrochromic layer, photoconductive or photosensitive layer; (i) said porous microparticles have an average refractive index approximately equals to one of the liquid crystal principal refractive indices and having spatial dimensions in the range of about 0.3-30 microns; (ii) an effective refractive index of the porous microparticles matches that of the liquid crystal at one orientational state (for example, parallel n ∥) of said liquid crystal and exhibits large mismatch at another orientational state (for example, perpendicular n ⊥), of said liquid crystal; (iii) a refractive index mismatch between said microparticles and said liquid crystal is tuned by applying an external electric or magnetic field, thermally or optically, wherein said transparent conductive electrode layer is patterned into pixels and said external field being applied to said each pixel separately or to a group of said pixels, thereby resulting in said device being pixelated, wherein said each pixel is adjusted to modify polarisation, intensity or phase of an optical beam, thereby turning said device into a spatial or polarisation light modulator for improving image quality and creating polarimetric or ellipsometric images; and (iv) concentration of said microparticles in said composite is in the range of 0.1%- 50% for providing optimum contrast of the device upon switching it between different orientational states of the liquid crystal, when said device is used as a scattering device, and less than 0.1% for avoiding significant light scattering, when said device is used as a spectrum, phase or polarisation modulator.