Patent ID: 8158020

Claim:
A liquid crystal element comprising: a pair of transparent substrates; a liquid crystal layer which fills in between the pair of substrates and can form a chiral smectic C phase in homeotropic orientation, a thickness of the liquid crystal layer being 70 μm or more; and an electrode which generates, at least, an electric field in directions parallel to a principal face of the substrate for the liquid crystal layer; wherein the liquid crystal layer comprises, at least, 10% by weight of a chiral compound in a base liquid crystal material which can provide a phase sequence of an isotropic liquid phase, a nematic phase, a smectic A phase and a smectic C phase from a higher temperature side, wherein the base liquid crystal material comprises at least one of wherein the chiral compound is a compound of the following formula (1-III) wherein R 3 is an alkyl group or alkenyl group whose carbon number is any of 1 to 15, and 1<1<9.