Abstract: The present invention provides an optical compensation plate having an optical compensation layer in which occurrence of cracks due to an applied pressure and deformation caused by heat or the like are suppressed. By applying an adhesive that contains a moisture-curing isocyanate compound and has a glass transition temperature of 100° C. or less onto at least one surface of the optical compensation layer and curing the adhesive, an anti-cracking layer is formed directly on the surface of the optical compensation layer. The occurrence of cracks and the deformation in the optical compensation layer can be prevented by this anti-cracking layer. The optical compensation layer preferably is a layer having a cholesteric structure, and a constituent material thereof preferably is a non-liquid crystal polymer formed by polymerizing aligned liquid crystal monomers or an aligned liquid crystal polymer.

Abstract: A retardation film of the present invention comprises a stretched film of a polymer film containing a norbornene-based resin, wherein the stretched film satisfies the following equation (1) and the equation (2); 100 nm?(nx?ny)·d?350 nm . . . (1),0.1?(nx?nz)/(nx?ny)?0.9 . . . (2), where the refractive indices in the slow axis direction, the fast axis direction and the thickness direction of the film are nx, ny and nz, respectively, d(nm) is thickness of the film, and the slow axis direction is a direction that the refractive index in film plane is maximum. The retardation film is hard to cause a shift or an unevenness of a retardation value due to a stress.

Abstract: A laminated retardation plate of the present invention comprises at least two retardation plates made of stretched films of a thermoplastic resin, wherein under the same temperature condition, at least one retardation plate have the relationship of |X1|>|X2|, where X1 represents the dimensional change rate in the direction of slow axis and X2 represents the dimensional change rate in the direction of fast axis; at least one retardation plate have the relationship of |Y1|<|Y2|, where Y1 represents the dimensional change rate in the direction of slow axis and Y2 represents the dimensional change rate in the direction of fast axis; and the each retardation plate are arranged so as to the direction of slow axes thereof are in the same directions. The retardation value variation of the laminated retardation plate is small in the case where the environmental temperature changes.

Abstract: A polarizing plate of the present invention comprising a polarizer and a protective film provided on at least one surface thereof with an adhesive layer, wherein the protective film comprises (A) a thermoplastic resin having a substituted and/or non-substituted imide group in a side chain and (B) a thermoplastic resin having a substituted and/or non-substituted phenyl group, and nitrile group in a side chain, and the adhesive layer comprises a polyurethane adhesive containing a urethane polyol and an isocyanate crosslinking agent. The polarizing plate exhibits good resistance moisture.

Abstract: An IPS mode liquid crystal display comprising a liquid crystal cell, an optical film (F1) provided on a cell substrate on one side of the liquid crystal cell and comprises a polarizing plate comprising a transparent protective film having an in-plane retardation Re 10 nm or less and a thickness direction retardation Rth in the range of from 30 to 100 nm, a retardation film having an Nz value in the range of from 0.3 to 0.7 and an in-plane retardation Re1 in the range of from 200 to 300 nm, and an optical film (F2) provided on a cell substrate on the other side of the liquid crystal cell and comprises the polarizing plate and a retardation film having an Nz value in the range of from 0.9 to 1.2 and an in-plane retardation Re2 in the range of from 150 to 280 nm, and the absorption axes of the polarizing plates of the optical film (F1) and the optical film (F2) are perpendicular to each other, and both films are disposed so that the retardation film sides face the liquid crystal cell.

Abstract: An optically compensatory polarizer has a polarizer and an optically compensating film. The polarizer includes an absorption type polarizing element and transparent protective layers provided on opposite sides of the absorption type polarizing element, each of the transparent protective layers exhibiting an in-plane retardation of not larger than 10 nm and a thicknesswise retardation in a range of from 30 to 70 nm. The optically compensating film is laminated on one or each of opposite surfaces of the polarizer so that a slow axis of each optically compensating film crosses an absorption axis of the polarizer perpendicularly, and exhibits an in-plane retardation in a range of from 80 to 200 nm and Nz=(nx?nz)/(nx?ny) in a range of from ?0.2 to 0.2 and nx and ny satisfy the relation nx>ny.

Abstract: A light-diffusing sheet includes a transparent film and a light-diffusing layer formed on at least one side of the transparent film. The light-diffusing layer is composed of a resin coating layer having a rough surface. The transparent film comprises (A) a thermoplastic resin having a substituted and/or unsubstituted imide group at a side chain and (B) a thermoplastic resin having a substituted and/or unsubstituted phenyl group and a nitrile group at a side chain.

Abstract: A light diffusing sheet of a structure in which a light diffusing layer is formed on at least one surface of a transparent film, the light diffusing layer including a resin coat layer having a minute unevenness shape and a low refractive index layer having a refractive index lower than that of the resin coat layer on the surface having a minute unevenness shape thereof, whereby the sheet can retain antiglare property, shows almost no white blurring to be recognized due to surface scattering, exhibits almost no birefringence, and is excellent in adherence and durability even when applied to a high definition LCD.

Abstract: A light-diffusing sheet of the present invention comprises a transparent film and a light-diffusing layer, which is made of a resin coating layer having a minute unevenness formed on a surface thereof, is formed on at least one side of the transparent film. The transparent film includes a thermoplastic resin (A) having a substituted and/or non-substituted imido group in a side chain, and a thermoplastic resin (B) having a substituted and/or non-substituted phenyl group and nitrile group in a side chain, and the surface with the minute unevenness satisfies an average height-depth spacing (Sm): Sm?80 ?m, a center-line average surface roughness (Ra): Ra?0.25 ?m and a ten-point average surface roughness (Rz): Rz?9Ra. The light-diffusing sheet, even in a case of application to a high definition LCD, is suppressing a screen glittering phenomenon while maintaining antiglareness, exhibiting almost no birefringence, and excellent in adhesion and durability.

Abstract: Birefringence of a protective film and leakage of light in a cross-Nicole arrangement of polarizing plates may be canceled, when, as a polarizing plate protective film, using an optical film having an optical compensation layer (2) showing refractive index anisotropy satisfying a relationship of nx2?ny2>nz2, when a direction where an in-plane refractive index gives a maximum is defined as X-axis, a direction perpendicular to X-axis as Y-axis, a thickness direction as Z-axis, and when refractive indexes in each axial direction are defined as nx2, ny2, and nz2, respectively, on one side of a base material film (1) in which each of refractive index differences represented with |nx1?ny1|, |nx1?nz1| and |nz1?ny1| has values of not more than 0.

Abstract: The present invention provides an optical compensation plate having an optical compensation layer in which cracks occurring due to an applied pressure is suppressed. By applying a curable adhesive agent onto at least one surface of the optical compensation layer and curing the adhesive, an anti-cracking layer is formed directly on the surface of the optical compensation layer. The occurrence of cracks in the optical compensation layer can be prevented by this anti-cracking layer. The optical compensation layer preferably is a layer having a cholesteric structure, and the constituent material thereof is preferably a non-liquid crystal polymer formed by polymerizing aligned liquid crystal monomers or an aligned liquid crystal polymer.

Abstract: A polarizing plate with an optical compensation layer is provided, which has an excellent peelability and is easy to reattach after mounted on an image display apparatus. A pressure-sensitive adhesive layer satisfying the condition (I) below is formed on both surfaces of an optical compensation layer, and one of the pressure-sensitive adhesive layers is further laminated with a polarizing plate.

Abstract: A polarizing plate comprising a polarizer and a transparent protective film at least one surface of the polarizer via an adhesive layer, wherein an applied layer comprising a polymer having a hydroxyl group is formed on a surface of the transparent protective film that is adhered to the polarizer, and the adhesive layer is formed by an adhesive comprising an isocyanate adhesive, has no problem concerning saponification processing and has a good adhesive property between a polarizer and a transparent protective film.

Abstract: An optical sheet constituted by a retardation film; and a transparent layer provided on one of opposite surfaces of the retardation film. The retardation film exhibits Nz=(nx?nz)/(nx?ny) in a range of from 0.6 to 0.9 and (nx?ny)d in a range of from 200 to 350 nm in which d is a thickness of the retardation film, nz is a refractive index in a direction of a Z axis expressing a direction of the thickness d of the retardation film, nx is a refractive index in a direction of an X axis expressing a direction of the retardation film in a plane perpendicular to the Z axis while the X axis also expresses a direction of the highest in-plane refractive index, and ny is a refractive index in a direction of a Y axis expressing a direction of the retardation film perpendicular both to the Z axis and to the X axis. The transparent layer has a thickness not larger than 10 ?m and exhibits refractive index anisotropy of nx?ny>nz.

Abstract: A method for preparing an optical film, which comprises applying and developing an application liquid mixture containing a liquid crystal monomer, a chiral agent and a polymerization initiator on an orientation substrate, subjecting the resultant developed layer to a heat treatment, to orient the monomer to a cholesteric structure, and then subjecting the developed layer to a poltmerization treatment, to polymerize the oriented liquid crystal monomer, thereby forming an optical film exhibiting a selective reflection wave length of 100 to 320 nm. An optical film prepared by the above method is reduced in the coloring due to selective reflection.

Abstract: A reflective liquid crystal display (LCD) is constituted by a light pipe which emits incident light from an incident side from the other surface of its upper and lower surfaces through light emitting means formed on the one of them, a plane light source device with a light source arranged on one or more sides of the light pipe, and a liquid crystal display (LCD) panel having a reflective layer. The light emitting side of the plane light source device and the visual recognition side of the LCD panel are bonded to each other through an adhesive layer having a refractive index lower than that of the light pipe.

Abstract: An optical member has a polarizer, a viewing angle compensating plate, and an adhesive layer which has a refractive index ND20 not lower than 1.485 and through which the polarizer and the viewing angle compensating plate are laminated on each other. A liquid-crystal display device has at least one optical member defined above, a liquid-crystal cell, and an adhesive layer which has a refractive index ND20 not lower than 1.485 and through which the optical member is bonded onto at least one of opposite surfaces of the liquid-crystal cell.

Abstract: An optical film obtained by stretching a polymer film comprising a polycarbonate resin and a styrene resin: wherein a photoelastic coefficient is 2.0×10?11 to 6.0×10?11 m2/N, and a three dimensional refractive index is controlled so that an Nz coefficient may satisfy a relationship of Nz?0.9 and a front retardation (Re) may satisfy a relationship of Re?80 nm, has characteristics of giving wide viewing angle and also outstanding durability.

Abstract: An iodine-PVA polarizing element 30 ?m thick is dried by heating at 50° C. for 30 minutes to thereby obtain a polarizing element having a moisture content of 4.9% by weight. A pair of 100 ?m-thick norbornene resin films (tradename “ARTON” made by JSR Corporation) used as protective films are stuck to opposite surfaces of the obtained polarizing element through layers of PVA adhesive agents which are applied on the pair of nonbornene resin films respectively and dried, to form, a polarizer.

Abstract: An optical film including: a birefringent film A having Re of from 200 to 350 nm and Nz of from 0.6 to 0.9; and a birefringent film B having Re of from 100 to 175 nm and Nz of from 0.3 to 0.7, and laminated on the birefringent film A so that optical axes of the birefringent films A and B intersect each other, in which Re and Nz are given by the relations (nx−ny)d=Re and (nx−nz)/(nx−ny)=Nz, nx, ny and nz are refractive indices of corresponding one of the birefringent films A and B in two directions in a plane of the birefringent film and in a direction of the thickness of the birefringent film, and d is the thickness of the birefringent film. A polarizer including: an optical film defined above; and a film having a polarizing function and laminated on the birefringent film A side of the optical film.