Patent ID: 8018556

Claim:
A liquid crystal display (LCD) device comprising: a liquid crystal (LC) cell including a homogeneously-oriented LC layer and a pair of transparent substrates sandwiching therebetween the LC layer; a first polarizing film disposed on a light incident side of said LC cell, said first polarizing film including a first polarizer and a pair of first protective layers sandwiching therebetween said polarizer, one of said first protective layers interposed between said first polarizer and said LC cell having an optical isotropy; a second polarizing film disposed on a light emitting side of said LC cell, said second polarizing film including a second polarizer and a pair of second protective layers sandwiching therebetween said second polarizer, one of said second protective layers interposed between said second polarizer and said LC cell having an in-plane retardation of substantially zero and a thickness-wise retardation of 20 nm to 90 nm: first and second optical anisotropic films interposed between said LC layer sand said second polarizing film and consecutively disposed from said second polarizing film, said first optical anisotropic film having a biaxial optical anisotropy and refractive indexes of ns, nf and nz in a direction of an in-plane slow axis, in a direction of an in-plane fast axis, and a thickness direction, respectively, said refractive indexes satisfying the relationship of (ns−nz)/(ns−nf)≦0.5, said second optical anisotropic film having an optical axis substantially perpendicular to a surface of said LC cell, wherein: said first polarizer has a light absorption axis perpendicular to a light absorption axis of said second polarizer; and said in-plane slow axis of said first optical anisotropic film, an orientation of said LC layer upon absence of an applied voltage and a light transmission axis of said second polarizer are parallel to one another.