A polymerizable liquid crystal compound represented by the following general formula (1):

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(the symbols in the general formula (1) are as described in the DESCRIPTION.)

A liquid crystal composition is provided containing a polymerizable liquid crystal compound, the composition having high preservation stability when dissolved in a solvent and also having the ability to restrain the development of orientation defects of the liquid crystal compound. A method of producing such a liquid crystal composition is also provided with ease. The liquid crystal composition includes a first polymerizable liquid crystal compound having five or more ring structures on its principal chain and represented by the following formula (A) and a second polymerizable liquid crystal compound having five or more ring structures and represented by the following formula (B).

Provided is a polarizer with excellent durability and an image display device including the polarizer. The polarizer includes a composition for forming a polarizer which contains a polymer liquid crystal compound and a dichroic material, in which the dichroic material includes a first dichroic material and a second dichroic material, an absolute value of a difference between a log P value of the first dichroic material and a log P value of the second dichroic material is 1.0 or less, and a stabilization energy indicating an energy loss in a case where one dichroic material of the first dichroic material and the second dichroic material is incorporated into a structure singly formed of the other dichroic material that is aligned therein is 30 kcal/mol or less.

Provided are an optically anisotropic film which has excellent moisture-heat resistance and can have a reduction in the thickness, an optical film, a polarizing plate, and an image display device. The optically anisotropic film is obtained by polymerizing a polymerizable liquid crystal composition, in which the polymerizable liquid crystal composition contains a polymerizable liquid crystal compound represented by Formula (1): L.sup.1-SP.sup.1-(E.sup.3-A.sup.1).sub.m-E.sup.1-G.sup.1-D.sup.1-Ar.sup.1-D.sup.2-G.sup.2-E.sup.2-(A.sup.2-E.sup.4).sub.n-SP.sup.2-L.sup.2 and a polymerizable liquid crystal compound represented by Formula (2): L.sup.1-SP.sup.1-(E.sup.3-A.sup.1).sub.m-E.sup.1-G.sup.1-D.sup.1-Ar.sup.2-D.sup.2-G.sup.2-E.sup.2-(A.sup.2-E.sup.4).sub.n-SP.sup.2-L.sup.2, and the optically anisotropic film satisfies Formula (3): Re(450)/Re(550)<1 or Formula (4): Rth(450)/Rth(550)<1, and has a degree of alignment as measured by Raman spectroscopy of 0.4 or more.

Provided is an image recording method including a step of preparing at least two ink compositions including a first ink composition that contains a polymerizable liquid crystal compound, a chiral compound, a polymerization initiator, and an organic solvent and a second ink composition that contains a polymerizable liquid crystal compound, a chiral compound, a polymerization initiator, and an organic solvent, a step of applying the first ink composition onto a substrate by an inkjet recording method, a step of forming a first ink film by irradiating the first ink composition applied onto the substrate with an active energy ray, a step of applying the second ink composition onto the first ink film by an inkjet recording method, and a step of forming a second ink film by irradiating the second ink composition applied onto the first ink film with an active energy ray, in which the first ink film has a hexadecane-contacting angle of 45° or less.

Disclosed herein is a light emitting device and method of manufacturing such a device comprised of a series of photopolymerizable, chiral liquid crystalline layers that can be solvent cast on a substrate. The mixture of chiral materials in each successive layer may be blended in such a way that each layer has the same chiral pitch. Further the chiral materials in each layer may also be blended so that the ordinary and extraordinary refractive indices in each layer match the other layers such that the complete assembly of layers will optically function as a single relatively thick layer of chiral liquid crystal. The chiral nematic material in each layer can spontaneously adopt a helical structure with a helical pitch. The light emitting layers of the light emitting device can further comprise electroluminescent material that emits light into the band edge light propagation modes of the photonic crystal.

The present invention provides a polymerizable composition containing a specific polymerizable compound and a fluorosurfactant having, in its molecule, a pentaerythritol skeleton or a dipentaerythritol skeleton. The invention also provides an optically anisotropic body, a retardation film, an antireflective film, and a liquid crystal display device that are produced using the polymerizable composition of the present invention. The present invention is useful because, when an optically anisotropic body is produced by photo-polymerization of the polymerizable composition, three features including the leveling properties of the surface of the optically anisotropic body, offset onto the substrate, and liquid crystal alignment can be improved simultaneously.

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.

The invention relates to novel anisotropic compounds of formula (I)

##STR00001##

as well as liquid crystalline mixtures, films and electro-optical devices comprising the compound.

An optical film, a polarizing plate, and an image display device, each having an optically anisotropic layer obtained by curing a polymerizable liquid crystal composition including immobilizing an alignment state of a rod-shaped liquid crystal compound (LCC) having reverse wavelength dispersibility and a monofunctional compound, in which the rod-shaped LCC has polymerizable groups P.sup.1 and P.sup.2, and three or more rings B.sup.1 selected from the group consisting of an aromatic ring and an alicyclic ring a.sub.1 atoms of the rod-shaped LCC and a.sub.2 atoms of the monofunctional compound having polymerizable group P.sup.3, satisfy a relationship of Expression (1): 0.2<a.sub.2/a.sub.1<0.55; b.sub.1 of the rings B.sup.1 contained in the rod-shaped LCC and a total b.sub.2 of the rings B.sup.2 and the aromatic rings Ar contained in the monofunctional compound satisfy a relationship of Expression (2): b.sub.2=b.sub.1×0.5 or b.sub.2=(b.sub.1+1)×0.5.