Abstract: The liquid crystal display device of the present invention includes a first substrate, a second substrate and a vertically aligned liquid crystal layer interposed between the first and second substrate. The device has a plurality of pixels each including a first electrode formed on the first substrate, a second electrode formed on the second substrate, and the liquid crystal layer interposed between the first and second electrode, and a shading region provided around the pixels. A plurality of supports for defining the thickness of the liquid crystal layer are placed regularly on the surface of the first or second substrate facing the liquid crystal layer in the shading region. The liquid crystal layer forms at least one liquid crystal domain exhibiting axisymmetric alignment when at least a predetermined voltage is applied, and the tilt direction of liquid crystal molecules in the at least one liquid crystal domain is defined with inclined sides of the plurality of supports.

Abstract: A magneto-optical recording medium is arranged so that (1) a first transparent dielectric layer, (2) a reproduction layer showing in-plane magnetization at room temperature while showing perpendicular magnetization in response to temperature rise, (3) a second transparent dielectric layer, (4) a recording layer made of perpendicular magnetization film; and (5) a protective layer are laminated on a substrate in this order. The reproduction layer has a thickness of 5 nm to 30 nm, the second transparent dielectric layer has a thickness of 6 nm to 40 nm, and the recording layer has a thickness of 20 nm to 80 nm. It is possible to separately reproduce individual recording bit even when one or more adjacent recording bits exist within the diameter of the light beam converged onto a target recording bit. This is because the information of a recording magnetic domain of a portion showing in-plane magnetization is masked.