Patent ID: 8748068

Claim:
A method of producing a patterned birefringent product, comprising at least steps (1) to (3) in this order: (1) producing a birefringent pattern building material comprising at least one optically anisotropic layer, which is formed by a process including: coating and drying a composition containing at least one rod-like liquid crystalline compound having at least two reactive groups and at least one chiral agent to form a cholesteric liquid crystal phase; and then subjecting the cholesteric liquid crystal phase to heating or exposure to radiation to form the optically anisotropic layer containing a polymer fixed by polymerization and fixing; (2) subjecting the birefringent pattern building material to a patterned exposure to light; and, (3) baking a laminate obtained after the step (2) at 50° C. or higher and 400° C. or lower; wherein the optically anisotropic layer shows a characteristic reflection, arising from a cholesteric structure, to a circularly-polarized light of wavelength λ, that is determined by the following formula: λ= n·p , in which p represents a cholesteric pitch and n represents an average refractive index in each layer; and wherein the characteristic reflection shows a peak wavelength of 50 nm to 3000 nm, and a peak reflectance of 2% to 100%.