Patent ID: 7057690

Claim:
An optical compensatory sheet having a transparent support, an optically anisotropic layer formed from liquid crystal molecules aligned in an average inclined angle of less than 5°, wherein the liquid crystal molecules comprise a mixture of discotic liquid crystal molecules and rod-like liquid crystal molecules, wherein alignments of the discotic and rod-like liquid crystal molecules are fixed, and wherein the optical compensatory sheet has a retardation value in plane defined by the following formula in the range of 10 to 1,000 nm, and a retardation value along the thickness direction defined by the following formula in the range of 10 to 1,000 nm: Re =( nx−ny )× d Rth =[{( nx+ny )/2}− nz]×d in which Re is the retardation value in plane; Rth is the retardation value along the thickness direction; each of nx and ny is a refractive index in the plane of the optical compensatory sheet; nz is a refractive index along the thickness direction of the optical compensatory sheet; and d is the thickness of the optical compensatory sheet.