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##

The invention relates to compounds of the formula I, ##STR00001##
in which
R, A, n, L.sup.1, L.sup.2, L.sup.3 and X have the meanings given in Claim 1, to a process for their preparation, and to liquid-crystalline media comprising at least one compound of the formula I and electro-optical displays containing a liquid-crystalline medium of this type.

Provided is a liquid crystal display device that can achieve prevention of a decrease in the VHR and can achieve an increase in the response speed. A liquid crystal display device includes a liquid crystal panel that includes a liquid crystal layer containing a liquid crystal composition; and a light source that emits light on the liquid crystal panel, the liquid crystal composition containing at least one of a first liquid crystal compound containing a phenyl group and a conjugated bond group that forms a conjugated system continuous with the phenyl group and a second liquid crystal compound containing an alkenyl group not forming a conjugated system, the light source emitting green light having a half width of less than 50 nm.

Self-aligned liquid crystal materials and structures are disclosed. The structures can exhibit piezoelectric and flexoelectric properties.

An aspect of the present invention relates to a method for producing a cholesteric liquid crystal based shell. The method comprises producing a cholesteric liquid crystal shell, solidifying the cholesteric liquid crystal shell so as to obtain a solid shell and perforating the solid shell. A second aspect of the present invention relates to a cholesteric liquid crystal based solid shell comprising a perforation. Other aspects of the present invention pertain to a coating composition comprising a plurality of cholesteric liquid crystal based solid shells, an item comprising a tag that comprises the cholesteric liquid crystal based solid shells and a method for authenticating the item.

A compound includes, in a molecule, a structure A represented by the following A and a structure B represented by the following B, in which the compound includes two or more of the structures B in the molecule. A: A structure in which at least one or more aromatic ring structures are included and a total number of π electrons of the aromatic ring structure in the molecule is 8 or more. However, an aryl amine structure represented by a predetermined structure is excluded. B: A fluorine-containing terminal structure represented by a predetermined structural formula.

A LC lens and a liquid-crystal medium used in said LC lens, wherein the medium contains one or more compounds of each of formulae I and II ##STR00001##

A method for producing flakes of a resin thin film including: a step (1) of forming a resin thin film on a substrate film to obtain a multilayer film; a step (2) of pressing the multilayer film by a member having a concavo-convex shape to form cracks in the resin thin film; and a step (3) of stripping the resin thin film from the substrate film to obtain flakes. The step (2) is preferably performed with a pressing pressure of 100 MPa or less. The resin thin film is preferably formed of a cured product of a photocurable liquid crystal composition. The resin thin film is preferably a cholesteric resin layer.

A method for producing flakes of a resin thin film including: a step (1) of forming a resin thin film on a substrate film to obtain a multilayer film; a step (2) of pressing the multilayer film by a member having a concavo-convex shape to form cracks in the resin thin film; and a step (3) of stripping the resin thin film from the substrate film to obtain flakes. The step (2) is preferably performed with a pressing pressure of 100 MPa or less. The resin thin film is preferably formed of a cured product of a photocurable liquid crystal composition. The resin thin film is preferably a cholesteric resin layer.