The purpose of the present invention is to provide: a thermally responsive liquid-crystal polyurethane elastomer which is capable of being industrially continuously molded, and which is liquid crystal and has rubber elasticity at low temperatures (in the vicinity of room temperature); and a production method and a starting material therefor. This liquid-crystal urethane compound is obtained by reacting a mesogenic group-containing compound having at least active hydrogen groups, an alkylene oxide and/or a styrene oxide, and a diisocyanate compound.

The purpose of the present invention is to provide: a thermally responsive liquid-crystal polyurethane elastomer which is capable of being industrially continuously molded, and which is liquid crystal and has rubber elasticity at low temperatures (in the vicinity of room temperature); and a production method and a starting material therefor. This liquid-crystal urethane compound is obtained by reacting a mesogenic group-containing compound having at least active hydrogen groups, an alkylene oxide and/or a styrene oxide, and a diisocyanate compound.

A liquid crystal composition including: a polymerizable liquid crystal compound capable of expressing birefringence with inverse wavelength dispersion; a surfactant containing a fluorine atom; and a solvent, wherein the surfactant contains a fluorine atom at a ratio of 30% by weight or less in a molecule of the surfactant.

A compound serving as a dichroic pigment which has a maximum absorption wavelength in a range of 350 nm to 510 nm is represented by the following Formula (1):

##STR00001##

In Formula (1), R.sup.1 represents a hydrogen atom or a C1-C20 alkyl group; R.sup.2 through R.sup.4 are substituents which are not hydrogen atoms and each independently represent a C1-C4 alkyl group; m, p, and q are each independently an integer of 0 to 2; and R.sup.5 is (i) a C1-C10 alkyl group in which a hydrogen atom is substituted by at least one hydroxy group or (ii) a C1-C10 alkyl group which has carbon atoms and in which at least one O is inserted between the carbon atoms.

The present invention provides, by using a photo-alignment film, a liquid crystal display device in which a good voltage holding ratio is retained for a long period of time and occurrence of image sticking and stain in a display screen is prevented. The liquid crystal display device of the present invention includes an active matrix liquid crystal panel and a backlight, the liquid crystal panel including a liquid crystal layer, a pair of substrates that sandwich the liquid crystal layer in between, and an alignment film disposed on a liquid crystal layer side surface of each of the substrates, each alignment film being a photo-alignment film formed from a material that exhibits a photo-alignment characteristic and containing carboxyl groups on the liquid crystal layer side, the liquid crystal layer containing a liquid crystal material and a nitrobenzene derivative.

A compound serving as a dichroic pigment which has a maximum absorption wavelength in a range of 350 nm to 510 nm is represented by the following Formula (1):

##STR00001##

In Formula (1), R.sup.1 represents a hydrogen atom or a C1-C20 alkyl group; R.sup.2 through R.sup.4 are substituents which are not hydrogen atoms and each independently represent a C1-C4 alkyl group; n, m, and p are each independently an integer of 0 to 2; and Ar.sup.1 represents a nitrogen-containing saturated heterocyclic group which is a 5 to 8-membered ring and in which (i) N is bonded to a phenylene group and (ii) at least one -position is an oxygen atom or a sulfur atom.

A composition is provided which contains a compound represented by Formula (1) below and a polymerizable smectic liquid crystal compound:

##STR00001##

In Formula (1), R.sup.1 represents a hydrogen atom or a C1-C20 alkyl group; R.sup.2 through R.sup.4 each independently represent a C1-C4 alkyl group; n, p, and q are each independently an integer of 0 to 2; and R.sup.5 is (i) a nitrogen-containing saturated heterocyclic group which is a 6-membered ring and in which N is bonded to a phenylene group, or (ii) a group in which N is bonded to at least one C1-C10 alkyl group.

Disclosed are a liquid crystal panel, a display apparatus and a manufacturing method of the liquid crystal panel. The manufacturing method of the liquid crystal panel includes: forming a first alignment layer covering a substrate surface and having an alignment direction along a first direction on a first substrate; the first substrate includes multiple column pixel areas; forming a second alignment layer having an alignment direction along a second direction on the first alignment layer, the first direction and the second direction are different directions, in correspondence with each of the column pixel areas, the second alignment layer has at least one aligning unit that penetrates the column pixel areas, and a width of each of the aligning unit is smaller than a width of the column pixel area.

Disclosed are a liquid crystal panel, a display apparatus and a manufacturing method of the liquid crystal panel. The manufacturing method of the liquid crystal panel includes: forming a first alignment layer covering a substrate surface and having an alignment direction along a first direction on a first substrate; the first substrate includes multiple column pixel areas; forming a second alignment layer having an alignment direction along a second direction on the first alignment layer, the first direction and the second direction are different directions, in correspondence with each of the column pixel areas, the second alignment layer has at least one aligning unit that penetrates the column pixel areas, and a width of each of the aligning unit is smaller than a width of the column pixel area.

A structure for a physical unclonable function using spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking and a method of preparing the same are described, in which a chiral random pattern, which is unclonable and is observable with an optical microscope and a mobile phone camera, is formed using chiral photonic crystals in which chiral symmetry breaking occurs and is applied to a physical unclonable function (PUF), thereby attaining high encoding capacity, high recognition rate, and security while achieving high performance in reproducibility, uniqueness, unpredictability, and reconfigurability, and forming a desired pattern through a conventional photolithography method.