Patent ID: 7397525

Claim:
A liquid crystal display device comprising: a first polarizer plate that is disposed on one side of a liquid crystal cell in which a liquid crystal layer is sandwiched between two electrode-equipped substrates; a second polarizer plate that is disposed on the other side of the liquid crystal cell; a first phase plate that is disposed between the first polarizer plate and the liquid crystal cell; a second phase plate that is disposed between the second polarizer plate and the liquid crystal cell; a third phase plate that is disposed between the first polarizer plate and the first phase plate; and a fourth phase plate that is disposed between the second polarizer plate and the second phase plate, wherein the first phase plate and the third phase plate cooperate to impart a phase difference of a ¼ wavelength to linearly polarized light that emerges from the first polarizer plate, and the second phase plate and the fourth phase plate cooperate to impart a phase difference of a ¼ wavelength to linearly polarized light that emerges from the second polarizer plate, slow axes in planes of the first phase plate and the second phase plate are substantially parallel, a slow axis of the first phase plate and the second phase plate, a slow axis of the third phase plate and a slow axis of the fourth phase plate are disposed in such directions as to cancel in-plane anisotropies a crossed-axes angle between slow axes in planes of the first phase plate and the third phase plate is 60°, a crossed-axes angle between slow axes in planes of the second phase plate and the fourth phase plate is 60°, and a crossed-axes angle between slow axes in planes of the third phase plate and fourth phase plate is 60°.