Obi and Anakin were caught in a ray shield when trying to 'rescue' Palpatine.
As far as I can tell, in canon, ray shields are still used to deflect or disperse energy weapons. The Thermal Exhaust Port was ray shielded but not particle shielded so it could let out the exhaust gasses. However a proton torpedo could pass though. I suppose you could walk though one as well if ray shielding is anything like the shields we see used by the Gungans, or Droidekas. Unless it is more like the energy shields used in Theed that separate the duelist Obi-wan, Qui-gon, and Maul.
TBH, I think that there may have been some confusion by how the term was initially defined, even in ANH. The DS apparently didn't have shields, unless (as the rules of ENERGY shields go) they extended far enough off the surface that the fighters could penetrate to start inflicting blaster damage directly to the surface structures. However, in this could also be RAY shields, point protecting the port. Or RAY could simply imply both meanings: It is a point protection against energy weapons.
But, by ESB they were then referring to them as "energy fields", and in ROTJ "energy shields"
It always use to infuriate me in ROTS when Obi & Ani were captured by "ray shields". That is until I played LEGO Star Wars 3. In the battle field sequences "ray shield" gennies (A) were available for purchase, and they projected a shield over a single structure (B), and they could not be instantly turned off like the area gennies that shielded everything in their vicinity (C).
(A) (B) (C)
The area gennies could be walked through, just like the Gungan shields, and then attack whatever was inside. But the Ray shields had to be shut down in order to attack what they were protecting. This usually meant blasting the $#!% out of it until the operator decided to attack you, or just annihilating it altogether.
As far as the barriers used in Theed, those were effectively just gates, that aligned with an old Nubian proverb about "6 barriers to prevent the spread of chaos."
