Patent ID: 7218367

Claim:
A liquid crystal display comprising a liquid crystal cell having a first surface and a second surface provided between a first polarizing plate and a second polarizing plate, wherein an optical compensation sheet is provided either between the first polarizing plate and the first surface of the liquid crystal cell or between the second polarizing plate and the second surface of the liquid crystal cell, and only provided on one side of the liquid crystal cell, the optical compensation sheet comprising at least two optically anisotropic layers each formed by orienting an optically anisotropic compound, and the orientation direction in the optically anisotropic layer plane of the optically anisotropic compound in the two optically anisotropic layers intersecting each other at an angle of from 80 to 100 degrees, and wherein, viewing the two optically anisotropic layers from one side of the optical compensation sheet, one of the two optically anisotropic layers, when the optically anisotropic compound is uniaxial, is oriented so that a first angle of the optic axis of the uniaxial optically anisotropic compound to the optical compensation sheet plane increases continuously or stepwise in the thickness direction of the optical compensation sheet, or when the optically anisotropic compound is biaxial, is oriented so that a second angle of a direction giving maximum refractive index of the biaxial optically anisotropic compound to the optical compensation sheet plane increases continuously or stepwise in the thickness direction of the optical compensation sheet, and the other optically anisotropic layer, when the optically anisotropic compound is uniaxial, is oriented so that the first angle decreases continuously or stepwise in the thickness direction of the optical compensation sheet, or when the optically anisotropic compound is biaxial, is oriented so that the second angle decreases continuously or stepwise in the thickness direction of the optical compensation sheet.