Alignment films include a copolymer of a specific vertical alignment monomer and at least one of a specific anthracene-based monomer and a specific benzyl-based monomer.

Alignment films include a copolymer of a specific vertical alignment monomer and at least one of a specific anthracene-based monomer and a specific benzyl-based monomer.

[Object] An object of the present invention is to provide a liquid crystal composition containing a polymerizable compound for use in the manufacture of a PSA or PSVA liquid crystal display device. The polymerizable compound has a sufficiently high polymerization rate. The PSA or PSVA liquid crystal display device has few or no display defects due to a change in pretilt angle, has an adequate pretilt angle, and has high responsiveness. The present invention also provides a liquid crystal display device having the liquid crystal composition. [Solution] The object is achieved by using a liquid crystal composition containing one or two or more polymerizable compounds represented by the general formula (I).

[Object] An object of the present invention is to provide a liquid crystal composition containing a polymerizable compound for use in the manufacture of a PSA or PSVA liquid crystal display device. The polymerizable compound has a sufficiently high polymerization rate. The PSA or PSVA liquid crystal display device has few or no display defects due to a change in pretilt angle, has an adequate pretilt angle, and has high responsiveness. The present invention also provides a liquid crystal display device having the liquid crystal composition. [Solution] The object is achieved by using a liquid crystal composition containing one or two or more polymerizable compounds represented by the general formula (I).

The present invention relates to a liquid-crystal (LC) medium comprising one or more polymerisable compounds and to the use of the LC medium for optical, electro-optical and electronic purposes, in particular in LC displays, especially in LC displays of the polymer sustained alignment (PS, PSA) or self-aligning (SA) type.

Provided are an optical film, a circularly polarizing plate, and an image display apparatus in each of which the occurrence of cracks is suppressed in the obtained film in a case of being punched. The optical film includes a stretched resin film and a liquid crystal layer formed by fixing a liquid crystal compound twist-aligned along a helical axis extending along a direction in thickness, in which a δa value calculated using a three-dimensional solubility parameter of a resin in the stretched resin film is 8.0 MPa.sup.1/2 or less, the liquid crystal layer contains a cured substance of a polyfunctional compound having two or more polymerizable groups in one molecule, and an absolute value of a difference between the δa value calculated using the three-dimensional solubility parameter of the polyfunctional compound and the δa value calculated using the three-dimensional solubility parameter of the resin is 4.0 MPa.sup.1/2 or less.

Provided are an optical film, a circularly polarizing plate, and an image display apparatus in each of which the occurrence of cracks is suppressed in the obtained film in a case of being punched. The optical film includes a stretched resin film and a liquid crystal layer formed by fixing a liquid crystal compound twist-aligned along a helical axis extending along a direction in thickness, in which a δa value calculated using a three-dimensional solubility parameter of a resin in the stretched resin film is 8.0 MPa.sup.1/2 or less, the liquid crystal layer contains a cured substance of a polyfunctional compound having two or more polymerizable groups in one molecule, and an absolute value of a difference between the δa value calculated using the three-dimensional solubility parameter of the polyfunctional compound and the δa value calculated using the three-dimensional solubility parameter of the resin is 4.0 MPa.sup.1/2 or less.

The invention relates to a liquid-crystalline medium based on a mixture of polar compounds comprising a self-alignment additive for vertical alignment and additionally at least one compound of formula I as described more closely within this disclosure (polymerizable HALS), especially for vertically aligned display applications.

In light of requests to reduce or reverse the wavelength dispersion of the birefringence of a phase-retardation film in order to increase the viewing angle of a liquid crystal display, the present invention provides a polymerizable compound that reduces, for example, the likelihood of crystals precipitating in a polymerizable composition including the polymerizable compound and enables the polymerizable composition to have high preservation stability and a polymerizable composition including the polymerizable compound which reduces the likelihood of inconsistencies being formed in a film-like polymer produced by polymerizing the polymerizable composition. Another object of the present invention is to provide a polymer produced by polymerizing the polymerizable composition and an optically anisotropic body including the polymer.

The present invention relates to polymerisable compounds, to processes and intermediates for the preparation thereof, 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.