Patent ID: 7760275

Claim:
A phase difference compensation element, comprising at least one birefringent laminate, which contains a light transmissive base material and “a” number, where a≧2, of inorganic oblique incidence vacuum deposited films varying in direction of oblique evaporation, the inorganic oblique incidence vacuum deposited films having been laminated on a surface of the light transmissive base material, the birefringent laminate satisfying the conditions represented by Formula (i) and Formula (ii): Re (1)< Re ( a ) (i) Re ( b− 1)≦ Re ( b ) (ii) where b is an arbitrary integer satisfying the condition 2≦b≦a wherein Re(i) represents the retardation value d·Δn of the inorganic oblique incidence vacuum deposited film which has been formed at an i-th stage of film formation among the stages of forming the “a” number of the inorganic oblique incidence vacuum deposited films, respectively, where 1≦i≦a, d represents the film thickness, and Δn represents the birefringent index.