Patent ID: 7314654

Claim:
An optically anisotropic element comprising a discotic compound represented by the following formula (I-1) or (I-2), wherein the discotic compound has an oriented discotic plane: D(—O—CO—CR 1 ═CR 2 —CHR 3 —R 4 ) n1 (I-1) D(—O—CO—CHR 1 —CR 2 ═CR 3 —R 4 ) n2 (I-2) in which D is a discotic core; each of n1 and n2 is an integer of 3 to 20; each of R 1 , R 2 and R 3 is independently hydrogen, a halogen atom, an alkyl group or a substituted alkyl group and R 4 is an aryloxy group or a substituted aryloxy group.