Patent ID: 7075598

Claim:
A circularly polarizing element, comprising at least two cholesteric liquid crystal layers that are laminated to each other, wherein: each cholesteric liquid crystal layer comprises liquid crystalline molecules having one of a right-handed or a left-handed helical configuration; a helical axis of the liquid crystalline molecules in each cholesteric liquid crystal layer extends in a thickness direction of the circularly polarizing element; each of the cholesteric liquid crystal layers is formed as a thin film, wherein each of the cholesteric liquid crystal layers having a right-handed helical configuration has a low reflectance for right-handed circularly polarized light, and each of the cholesteric liquid crystal layers having a left-handed helical configuration has a low reflectance for left-handed circularly polarized light; each of the cholesteric liquid crystal layers is adapted to selectively reflect circularly polarized light in a wide wave range; and the wide wave range of circularly polarized light reflected by each cholesteric liquid crystal layer encompasses a selective reflection wave range common to the wide wave ranges of all of the cholesteric liquid crystal layers.