Patent ID: 7564510

Claim:
A liquid crystal display device comprising: a pair of substrates substantially parallel to each other, at least one of the substrates being transparent; and a liquid crystal layer sandwiched and held between the substrates, wherein a plurality of pixels each constituted by parts of the respective substrates and a part of the liquid crystal layer sandwiched between the parts of the substrates are arranged in a matrix pattern, each of the pixels includes first and second electrodes for generating, between the substrates, an electric field in a direction substantially parallel to the substrates and is divided into a plurality of regions, the regions of each of the pixels are defined by the first and second electrodes, the direction of an electric field generated in one of the regions is opposite to that of an electric field generated in an adjacent one of the regions, the liquid crystal layer has a structure in which when no electric field is generated, a slow axis indicating a refractive-index anisotropy as viewed in a direction normal to the substrates in each of the regions is vertical or parallel to the direction in which an electric field is to be generated whereas when an electric field is generated, the slow axis rotates about an axis normal to the substrates and slow axes in adjacent ones of the regions rotate in opposite directions, polarization is present in the liquid crystal layer when no electric field is generated between the first and second electrodes, and in the liquid crystal layer, a component of an average polarization direction in a direction parallel to the substrates is orthogonal to the direction in which an electric field is to be generated, when no electric field is generated between the first and second electrodes.