A liquid crystal composition contains a liquid crystal compound; a photo-alignment compound; and a polymer obtained by polymerizing a monomer having two or more radically polymerizable double bonds and one or more hydroxyl groups.

The invention relates to cinnamic acid derivatives of formula S ##STR00001##
wherein the radicals have the meaning indicated in claim 1,
to a process for their preparation and their use as self assembling photoalignment agent in liquid crystal mixtures. The invention further relates to a process for the fabrication of a liquid crystal (LC) display device with homogeneous alignment by photoaligning a liquid crystal mixture with positive or negative dielectric anisotropy comprising one or more compounds of formula S and optionally a polymerizable compound, to the liquid crystal mixture comprising the self assembling photoaligning agent and optionally the polymerizable compound and to the LC display produced by said process.

The invention relates to a light modulation element as comprising, preferably consisting of a cholesteric liquid crystalline medium sandwiched between two opposing substrates, an electrode arrangement, which is capable to allow the application of an electric field, which is substantially perpendicular to the main plane of substrate or the layer of the cholesteric liquid crystalline medium, characterized in that one of the substrates is provided with a planar alignment layer adjacent to the cholesteric liquid crystalline medium and the other substrate is provided with a homeotropic alignment layer adjacent to the cholesteric liquid crystalline medium. The invention is further related to a method of production of said light modulation element and to the use of said light modulation element in various types of optical and electro-optical devices, such as electro-optical displays, liquid crystal displays (LCDs), non-linear optic (NLO) devices, and optical information storage devices.

The present invention provides a liquid crystal display device that includes a retardation layer with excellent thermal stability and suppresses a decrease in contrast ratio caused by scattering even when the retardation layer has been formed by polymerizing reactive monomers. The liquid crystal display device includes a pair of substrates and a liquid crystal layer held between the substrates. At least one of the substrates includes a retardation layer that contains a polymer of at least one type of monomer. The at least one type of monomer includes a photo-alignment monomer represented by a certain formula.

The present invention relates to a liquid crystal (LC) medium comprising polymerisable compounds, to a process for its preparation, to its use for optical, electro-optical and electronic purposes, in particular in LC displays, and to LC displays comprising it.

The present invention aims to provide a liquid crystal display device in which image sticking and stains are sufficiently reduced. The present invention relates to an alignment film including: a polymer, wherein the polymer is a polysiloxane or a polyvinyl and contains a silsesquioxane group. The present invention also relates to a polymer for use in the alignment film, the polymer containing a silsesquioxane group. The present invention also relates to a liquid crystal display device including: the alignment film; a pair of substrates; and a liquid crystal layer disposed between the substrates, wherein the alignment film is disposed between at least one of the substrates and the liquid crystal layer.

The invention relates to a RM lens obtainable from a polymerizable liquid crystalline medium comprising, a polymerizable liquid crystalline component A comprising one or more polymerizable mesogenic compounds, and at most 12% by weight of the total medium of a non-mesogenic component B. Moreover, the invention relates to the use of such birefringent RM lenses in electro optical devices, such as liquid crystal displays (LCDs) or other optical or electrooptical devices, for decorative or security applications.

A liquid crystal display device which enables reductions in image sticking and droplet stains caused in production thereof without degradation of properties such as dielectric anisotropy, viscosity, the upper limit of the temperature of nematic phase, and rotational viscosity (.sub.1); and a method for manufacturing such a liquid crystal display device. The liquid crystal display device is characterized in that a liquid crystal layer containing a liquid crystal composition is disposed between a substrate provided with a common electrode and a color filter layer and another substrate provided with a plurality of pixels each having a pixel electrode, each of the substrates is not provided with an alignment film but provided with an orientation controlling layer composed of at least two polymerizable compounds, each of the pixels has two or more regions having different directions of pretilt, and the liquid crystal composition contains a compound represented by General Formula (I) and a compound represented by General Formula (II).

There is provided a liquid crystal composition that exhibits a sufficiently low viscosity (), a sufficiently low rotational viscosity (1), and a large elastic modulus (K.sub.33) without decreasing the refractive index anisotropy (n) and the nematic phase-isotropic liquid phase transition temperature (T.sub.ni) and without increasing the solid phase-nematic phase transition temperature (T.sub.cn). The liquid crystal display element that uses this liquid crystal composition satisfactorily obtains a pretilt angle and has a high voltage holding ratio (VHR) and high-speed response. Thus, a liquid crystal display element that has no or less alignment defects and display defects such as image sticking, and has high display quality and high response speed is obtained.

A liquid crystal display device, whereby transparency when no voltage is applied and scattering properties when a voltage is applied, are good, adhesion between a liquid crystal layer and a vertical liquid crystal alignment film is high, and its lifespan is long even in a severe environment. The liquid crystal display device has a liquid crystal layer formed by disposing a liquid crystal composition containing a liquid crystal and a polymerizable compound between a pair of substrates provided with electrodes, and irradiating and curing the composition with ultraviolet rays by an ultraviolet irradiation apparatus, and at least one substrate is provided with a liquid crystal alignment film to vertically align a liquid crystal, wherein the ultraviolet irradiation apparatus is an ultraviolet irradiation apparatus capable of controlling the irradiation light intensity and wavelength of the ultraviolet rays to be irradiated and the surface temperature of the pair of the substrates.