The present invention relates to liquid-crystalline media comprising a) one or more compounds of the formula ST-1, as defined herein, and b) one or more compounds of the formula ST-2, as defined herein, and c) one or more compounds of the formula RV, as defined herein, and d) one or more compounds selected from formula IA and IB, as defined herein, and to liquid-crystal displays containing these media, especially to displays addressed by an active matrix and in particular to displays of the in-plane switching (IPS) or fringe-field switching (FFS) type.

A liquid crystal cell includes a pair of facing substrates having a photo-alignment film, and a liquid crystal layer. The liquid crystal material contains a liquid crystal compound having a structure represented by any of the following chemical formula (1-1) and chemical formula (1-2):
A.sub.1-C.sub.nF.sub.2nX.sub.1-A.sub.2(1-1)
A.sub.1-X.sub.1C.sub.nF.sub.2n+1(1-2)
in the chemical formula (1-1), A.sub.1 is a phenyl group, a phenylene group, a naphthyl group, a naphthylene group, a cyclohexyl group, or a cyclohexylene group; A.sub.2 is a phenyl group, a phenylene group, a naphthyl group, or a naphthylene group (provided that a hydrogen atom in functional groups A.sub.1 and A.sub.2 is optionally substituted by a fluoro group, a chloro group, a bromo group, a methyl group, or an ethyl group); X.sub.1 is an oxygen atom or a direct bond; and n is an integer of 1 to 6. The photo-alignment film is obtained by subjecting a polymer film to a photo-alignment treatment.

The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a liquid crystal display (LCD) of the polymer stabilized ultra fast (PS-UF) twisted nematic (TN) mode, to an LCD obtained by this method and to an LC medium used therein.

Liquid-crystal (LC) display devices comprising polymerisable compounds, processes and intermediates for the preparation of the devices and compounds, LC media comprising the compounds, and the use of the polymerisable compounds and LC media for optical, electro-optical and electronic purposes, in particular in LC displays, especially in LC displays of the polymer sustained alignment type.

Provided are an optical element that can make the brightness of light emitted from a light guide plate uniform, a light guide element, and an image display device. The optical element includes a patterned cholesteric liquid crystal layer that is obtained by immobilizing a cholesteric liquid crystalline phase, in which the patterned cholesteric liquid crystal layer has a liquid crystal alignment pattern in which a direction of an optical axis derived from a liquid crystal compound changes while continuously rotating in at least one in-plane direction, and the patterned cholesteric liquid crystal layer has regions having different pitches of helical structures in a plane.

LC media and LC displays containing an LC medium with positive dielectric anisotropy, which contains one or more compounds of formula I in a concentration of >0 and 10%

##STR00001##

and displays addressed by an active matrix and in particular displays of the IPS, PS-IPS, FFS, PS-FFS, HB-FFS, U-IPS, TN, PS-TN, STN or TN-TFT mode.

A liquid crystal display device of the present invention includes a thin-film transistor substrate, a counter substrate facing the thin-film transistor substrate, a liquid crystal layer provided between the thin-film transistor substrate and the counter substrate, an alignment film provided on the thin-film transistor substrate; a sealing material which bonds together the thin-film transistor substrate and the counter substrate at the periphery of the liquid crystal layer, and a polymerized layer provided on the liquid crystal layer-side surface of the alignment film. The alignment film contains a first polymer and a second polymer of a different type from that of the first polymer and is chemically bonded to the sealing material, the first polymer and the second polymer contained in the alignment film are mixed in a surface layer in contact with the liquid crystal layer, and the first polymer and the second polymer have different photo-functional groups.

The problem is to provide a polymerizable compound having suitable polymerization reactivity, a high conversion ratio, low polymerization starting temperature, and high solubility in a liquid crystal composition; a liquid crystal composition containing the compound; and a liquid crystal display device including the composition.

A means thereof includes a compound represented by formula (1) and a liquid crystal composition containing the compound.

##STR00001##

In formula (1), R.sup.1, R.sup.2 and R.sup.3 are independently alkyl or the like; n is 0 or the like; ring A.sup.1 is phenyl or the like, and ring A.sup.2 and ring A.sup.3 are independently 1,4-phenylene or the like; Z.sup.1 and Z.sup.2 are independently a single bond or the like; Sp.sup.1 to Sp.sup.4 are a single bond or the like; a is 1 or the like; c, d and e are independently 0 or 1, and a sum of c, d and e is 1 or the like; and P.sup.1 to P.sup.4 are a polymerizable group, and at least one of P.sup.1 to P.sup.4 is a polymerizable group represented by formula (P-1).

##STR00002##

The present invention relates to a mixture comprising a not fully aromatic polymerisabe compound and a polymerisable photoinitiator, to liquid-crystal (LC) media comprising them, and to the use of the polymerisable compounds and LC media for optical, electro-optical and electronic purposes, in particular in LC displays, especially in LC displays of the polymer sustained alignment type.

The disclosure provides a liquid crystal composition having favorable characteristics and excellent characteristic balance as a material used for an element used for phase control of an electromagnetic wave signal having a frequency of 1 MHz to 400 THz. A liquid crystal composition which is used for phase control of an electromagnetic wave signal having a frequency of 1 MHz to 400 THz, and which includes a compound selected from the group represented by Formula (1),

##STR00001## in Formula (1), the ring A.sup.0 to the ring A.sup.4 are each independently 1,4-phenylene and the like; Z.sup.0 to Z.sup.3 are each independently a single bond or CF.sub.2O, where CF.sub.2O is one or less in Z.sup.0 to Z.sup.3; p is 0 or 1; and R.sup.1 is alkyl having 1 to 12 carbon atoms and the like, and R.sup.11 is CN and the like.