A laminate including a horizontally oriented liquid crystal cured film that is a cured material of a polymerizable liquid crystal composition containing at least one type of polymerizable liquid crystal compound, and a vertically oriented liquid crystal cured film is provided. The horizontally oriented liquid crystal cured film is the cured material of the polymerizable liquid crystal composition in which the polymerizable liquid crystal compound is cured in a state of being horizontally oriented with respect to a plane of the liquid crystal cured film, and satisfies the following formulae: nxA(450)>nyA(450)>nzA(450) and ReA(450)/ReA(550)<1.00.

Provided is a viewing angle control polarizing plate that has asymmetric transmission characteristics, does not cause moire even in a case of being used in combination with a high-definition image display device, and is capable of easily following a curved surface and a viewing angle control system with high productivity. The viewing angle control system includes at least a first polarizer and an optically anisotropic layer, in which an absorption axis of the first polarizer forms an angle of 45° or greater with respect to an in-plane direction, and a main axis of a refractive index of the optically anisotropic layer is tilted in the in-plane direction.

A liquid crystal composition, a liquid crystal display element and a liquid crystal display comprising the liquid crystal composition belong to the field of liquid crystal display. The liquid crystal composition comprises a compound represented by formula I with a mass content of 1-10% as the first component, a compound represented by formula II with a mass content of 1-20% as the second component, more than two compounds represented by formula III as the third component, more than three compounds represented by formula IV as the fourth component, and one or more polymerizable compounds as the fifth component, the crystal composition has low rotational viscosity and low γ.sub.1/K.sub.33 on the basis of maintaining appropriate optical anisotropy. When applied to liquid crystal display elements or liquid crystal displays, the liquid crystal display has a fast response speed. ##STR00001##

A polymerizable composition containing: a) a polymerizable compound having one or two or more polymerizable groups and satisfying formula (I): Re(450 nm)/Re(550 nm)<1.0 (I); b) at least one photopolymerization initiator selected from the group consisting of alkylphenone-based compounds, acylphosphine oxide-based compounds, and oxime ester-based compounds; and c) a polymerization inhibitor. An optically anisotropic body, a retardation film, an antireflective film, and a liquid crystal display device that are produced using the polymerizable liquid crystal composition. The polymerizable composition is excellent in solubility and has high storage stability, so that no precipitation of crystals etc. occurs. When a film-shaped polymer is produced by polymerizing the above composition, the unevenness of the surface of the coating film is small while the alignment of the liquid crystal is maintained, and high durability is obtained. Therefore, the polymerizable composition is useful.

The present invention provides a liquid crystal composition with which a light absorption anisotropic film excellent in plane shape uniformity with a high alignment degree can be formed, a method of producing same, a light absorption anisotropic film, a laminate, and an image display device. The liquid crystal composition contains a high-molecular weight liquid crystal compound, and a dichroic substance, where the composition is a copolymer containing 90% by mass or more of a repeating unit (1) of Formula (1) and 10% by mass or less of a repeating unit (2) of Formula (2). In Formulae (1) and (2), P1 to P3 represent main chains, L1 to L3 represent a single bond or divalent linking group, P2 to SP3 represent a single bond or spacer group (SP1), M1 to M3 represent mesogenic groups, T1 represents a terminal group, and n and m are integers of 0 or 1. ##STR00001##

A polymerizable LC material comprising one or more reactive mesogenic compounds, one or more chiral compounds and a block copolymer that comprises at least one polyfluorooxetane block bonded to a polyether block, said polyfluorooxetane block having a repeating unit of the formula ##STR00001## Further, a method for its preparation, a polymer film obtainable from a corresponding polymerizable LC material, a method of preparation of such polymer film, and the use of such polymer film and said polymerizable LC material in optical, electro-optical, decorative or security devices.

Provided is a composition for forming a photo-alignment film that improves a surface state of a liquid crystal layer having excellent liquid crystal alignment properties of the liquid crystal layer provided on a photo-alignment film, and an optical laminate formed of the composition. The composition includes a polymer A which has a repeating unit A1 containing a photo-aligned group and a repeating unit A2 containing a cationically polymerizable group, a polymer B which has a repeating unit B1 containing a cationically polymerizable group and does not contain a photo-aligned group, and at least one acid generator selected from the group consisting of a photoacid generator and a thermal acid generator, in which the polymer B has 90% by mass or greater of a repeating unit, in which a hydrogen bond element of a Hansen solubility parameter is less than 10.0, with respect to all repeating units of the polymer B.

Provided are a light color conversion material and a light color conversion ink. The light color conversion material includes a quantum dot and a cross-linkable cholesteric liquid crystal material. The cross-linkable cholesteric liquid crystal material encapsulates the quantum dot. The cross-linkable cholesteric liquid crystal material has Bragg diffraction characteristic after cross-linking, and blue light with a wavelength between 400 nm and 480 nm may be reflected by the cross-linked cholesteric liquid crystal material and transmitted through the cross-linked cholesteric liquid crystal material at the same time.

Provided are a liquid crystal diffraction element which exhibits low scattering and high sharpness of diffracted light, and a method for producing the same. A liquid crystal diffraction element having an alignment film which has a periodic pattern and also having a cholesteric liquid crystal layer, in which: the periodic pattern is imparted to the alignment film as a result of alignment elements having different tilt angles being periodically arranged in the alignment film or the alignment elements being arranged in a manner such that the azimuth direction thereof swings in one in-plane direction; the direction of the molecular axis of a liquid crystal compound changes while continuously rotating and in at least one in-plane direction on at least one main surface among the pair of main surfaces of the cholesteric liquid crystal layer; the molecular axis of the liquid crystal compound is tilted with respect to the main surfaces of the cholesteric liquid crystal layer; and an arrangement direction of bright portion and dark portion derived from the cholesteric liquid crystalline phase observed by a scanning electron microscope in a cross section perpendicular to the main surfaces is tilted with respect to the main surfaces of the cholesteric liquid crystal layer.

Provided are an optical film, a circularly polarizing plate, and an image display apparatus in each of which the occurrence of cracks is suppressed in the obtained film in a case of being punched. The optical film includes a stretched resin film and a liquid crystal layer formed by fixing a liquid crystal compound twist-aligned along a helical axis extending along a direction in thickness, in which a δa value calculated using a three-dimensional solubility parameter of a resin in the stretched resin film is 8.0 MPa.sup.1/2 or less, the liquid crystal layer contains a cured substance of a polyfunctional compound having two or more polymerizable groups in one molecule, and an absolute value of a difference between the δa value calculated using the three-dimensional solubility parameter of the polyfunctional compound and the δa value calculated using the three-dimensional solubility parameter of the resin is 4.0 MPa.sup.1/2 or less.