A polymer composition comprising at least one liquid crystalline polymer and an ultrahigh molecular weight siloxane polymer in an amount from about 0.1 to about 20 parts by weight per 100 parts by weight of the liquid crystalline polymer is provided. The siloxane polymer has a number average molecular weight of about 100,000 grams per mole or more.

Polymerizable compounds, processes and intermediates for their preparation, compositions containing them, polymers made from the compounds or compositions, and uses of the polymerizable compounds, compositions and polymers.

[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).

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.

A liquid crystal display capable of reducing the occurrence of defective display due to variations in the initial alignment direction of a liquid crystal alignment control film in a liquid crystal display of an IPS scheme, realizing the stable liquid crystal alignment, providing excellent mass productivity, and having high image quality with a higher contrast ratio. The liquid crystal display has a liquid crystal layer disposed between a pair of substrates, at least one of the substrates being transparent, and an alignment control film formed between the liquid crystal layer and the substrate. At least one of the alignment control films 109 comprises photoreactive polyimide and/or polyamic acid provided with an alignment control ability by irradiation of substantially linearly polarized light.

A liquid crystal medium containing a compound of formula I

##STR00001## and one or more compounds of the formulae IIA, IIB, IIC and IID,

##STR00002## useable in optical, electro-optical and electronic purposes, in particular in LC displays.

An object of the present invention is to provide an optical laminate in which optically anisotropic layers exhibiting reverse wavelength dispersibility have excellent moisture-heat resistance, and the adhesiveness between a first optically anisotropic layer and a second optically anisotropic layer is excellent; and a polarizing plate and an image display device, each using the optical laminate. The optical laminate according to an embodiment of the present invention is an optical laminate having a first optically anisotropic layer and a second optically anisotropic layer, in which both of the first optically anisotropic layer and the second optically anisotropic layer are directly laminated and consist of a liquid crystal layer, at least one of the first optically anisotropic layer or the second optically anisotropic layer exhibits reverse wavelength dispersibility, a photo-alignment polymer having a photo-alignment group and a fluorine atom or a silicon atom is present on a surface of the second optically anisotropic layer on a side in contact with the first optically anisotropic layer, and an element ratio of fluorine or silicon on the surface of the second optically anisotropic layer on the side in contact with the first optically anisotropic layer is 0.05% to 15.00% by atom.

Provided is a viewing angle control polarizing plate that has asymmetric transmission characteristics, does not cause moire even in a case of being used in combination with a high-definition image display device, and is capable of easily following a curved surface and a viewing angle control system with high productivity. The viewing angle control system includes at least a first polarizer and an optically anisotropic layer, in which an absorption axis of the first polarizer forms an angle of 45° or greater with respect to an in-plane direction, and a main axis of a refractive index of the optically anisotropic layer is tilted in the in-plane direction.

A liquid crystal composition, a liquid crystal display element and a liquid crystal display comprising the liquid crystal composition belong to the field of liquid crystal display. The liquid crystal composition comprises a compound represented by formula I with a mass content of 1-10% as the first component, a compound represented by formula II with a mass content of 1-20% as the second component, more than two compounds represented by formula III as the third component, more than three compounds represented by formula IV as the fourth component, and one or more polymerizable compounds as the fifth component, the crystal composition has low rotational viscosity and low γ.sub.1/K.sub.33 on the basis of maintaining appropriate optical anisotropy. When applied to liquid crystal display elements or liquid crystal displays, the liquid crystal display has a fast response speed. ##STR00001##

Provided is a composition for forming a photo-alignment film that improves a surface state of a liquid crystal layer having excellent liquid crystal alignment properties of the liquid crystal layer provided on a photo-alignment film, and an optical laminate formed of the composition. The composition includes a polymer A which has a repeating unit A1 containing a photo-aligned group and a repeating unit A2 containing a cationically polymerizable group, a polymer B which has a repeating unit B1 containing a cationically polymerizable group and does not contain a photo-aligned group, and at least one acid generator selected from the group consisting of a photoacid generator and a thermal acid generator, in which the polymer B has 90% by mass or greater of a repeating unit, in which a hydrogen bond element of a Hansen solubility parameter is less than 10.0, with respect to all repeating units of the polymer B.