A liquid crystal alignment agent capable of forming a liquid crystal alignment film having good pre-tilt angle light stability, the liquid crystal alignment film, and a liquid crystal display element having the liquid crystal alignment film are provided. The liquid crystal alignment agent includes a polymer (A), a photosensitive polysiloxane (B), and a solvent (C). The polymer (A) is obtained by reacting a mixture, wherein the mixture includes a tetracarboxylic dianhydride component (a1) and a diamine component (a2). The diamine component (a2) includes a diamine compound (a2-1) represented by formula (1). The photosensitive polysiloxane (B) is obtained by reacting a silane compound (b1-1) containing an epoxy group and a cinnamic acid derivative (b2).

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A polymerizable liquid crystal composition contains a polymerizable liquid crystal compound having good solubility, and is well-aligned without dissolving a substrate or a base material when coated onto the substrate. Moreover, the polymerizable liquid crystal composition causes no coating film unevenness during coating so that a smooth optically anisotropic body can be obtained. The polymerizable liquid crystal composition contains at least one kind of polymerizable liquid crystal compound having one or more polymerizable functional groups in one molecule, and a solvent, wherein the solvent includes a diacetate solvent and a ketone solvent.

A polymer film is provided, the polymer film comprises a liquid crystal polymer, comprising a soluble liquid crystal polymer and an insoluble liquid crystal polymer; and a polyimide polymer; wherein the polymer film has a thermal expansion coefficient between 0 and 60 ppm/t of 50 C. to 200 C., a water absorption rate less than 0.5%, a dielectric loss tangent of D.sub.f less than 0.005 at a frequency of 10 GHz, and a storage elastic modulus greater than 0.1 GPa at 310 C. A method for manufacturing the polymer film, the method for manufacturing the polymer film comprises steps: providing a liquid crystal polymer powder; providing a liquid crystal polymer glue; providing a polyamic acid glue; mixing the liquid crystal polymer powder, the liquid crystal polymer glue and the polyamic acid glue into a mixed solution, the mixed solution is made into a gel film.

An electro-optic modulator is disclosed. The electro-optic modulator includes a modulator material film layer. The modulator material film layer includes a polymer matrix. Liquid crystals and getter molecules are dispersed within the polymer matrix. The liquid crystals are configured to modulate light transmissivity through the electro-optic modulator. The getter molecules capture or coordinate with cationic impurities present within the polymer matrix. By gettering the cationic impurities, switching of the device at modulated low frequencies are improved as well as a reduction on the switching voltage of the device. Three classes of getter molecules have been so far demonstrated to work: inorganic ion traps (dihydrogen ammonium phosphate), organic cation traps (EDTA), and organic ion extractors (nicotinic acid). An amount for the getter molecules may be 0.01 to 1.0 percent by weight of the polymer matrix.

The present invention relates to polymerizable liquid crystalline formulations and especially to an ink formulation for inkjet printing comprising 10 to 50% w/w of one or more polymerizable liquid crystalline compounds and 50 to 90% w/w of one or more organic solvents selected from the group of aliphatic ketones, cyclic ketones, alkyl ethers of ethylene glycol or propylene glycol, alkyl esters of menthyl or aromatic solvents.

A liquid crystal composition has a mixture of rod-shaped monomer molecules, a chiral agent, and a mixture of multiple bent molecules. A method for preparing the liquid crystal composition includes mixing the mixture of rod-shaped monomer molecules, a chiral agent and a mixture of bent molecules in an organic solvent, and evaporating the organic solvent from the liquid crystal mixture to obtain the liquid crystal composition. A display panel has a layer of the liquid crystal composition disposed between a first substrate and a second substrate.

An object of the present invention is to provide a liquid crystal composition, which can form an optically anisotropic layer in which cissing and wind marks are suppressed in formation of a liquid crystal cured layer having reverse dispersibility, without using a compound having a polyfluoro group; and an optically anisotropic layer, an optical film, a polarizing plate, and an image display device. The optically anisotropic layer of the present invention is an optically anisotropic layer consisting of a liquid crystal cured layer obtained by fixing an alignment state of a liquid crystal composition which contains a reverse dispersion compound (I) represented by Formula (1), at least one liquid crystal compound, and a surfactant (II) having a structure represented by Formula (2) in a molecule, in which the optically anisotropic layer satisfies a relationship of Expression (3).