Patent ID: 7538836

Claim:
A liquid crystal display device comprising a circularly polarizing plate, a liquid crystal display panel and a backlight, wherein the circularly polarizing plate includes a polarizer and an optical layer having a value of N z shown by the following equation (1), wherein the circularly polarizing plate includes a birefringent body satisfying N z <0 between the polarizer and a retarder satisfying N z >0, N z =( n x −n z )/( n x −n y ) (1) where n x and n y designate main refractive indexes in a plane to light having a wavelength of 550 nm and satisfy n x ≧n y , and n z designates a main refractive index in a thickness direction to the light having the wavelength of 550 nm, wherein the retarder satisfying N z >0 comprises a λ/4 retarder, wherein the λ/4 retarder satisfies 0.8≦N z ≦2, and front retardation R th in a thickness direction of the birefringent body satisfying N z <0 satisfies −280 nm≦R th ≦−40 nm, and wherein the circularly polarizing plate is disposed only on the backlight side of the liquid crystal display panel.