Optically active monomer, liquid crystal polymer, and optical element

Abstract

To obtain a monomer having a large torsion force, to obtain a liquid crystal polymer which is excellent in a film-forming property, can easily control a helical pitch of a cholesteric phase, can form a grandjean orientation in a good monodomain state by an orientation treatment in a short time such as few minutes, and can stably fix it in a glass state, and to obtain an optical element having a circular dichroism, represented by the following formula (a), comprising a solidified product of the liquid crystal polymer, which is thin and light, is hard to change the oriented state such as pitch, etc., at a practical temperature, and has excellent durability and storage stability. An optically active monomer represented by (wherein R1 represents a hydrogen atom or a methyl group, and A and B represent an organic group); a side chain type liquid crystal polymer having a structural unit comprising the optically active monomer; and an optical element showing a circular dichroism having a solidified layer of a grandjean oriented cholesteric liquid crystal phase comprising the liquid crystal polymer.

Description

[0001] The present invention relates to an optically active monomer and a liquid crystal polymer thereof suitable for forming a liquid crystal display, and to an optical element having a circular dichroism using the polymer.[0002] A polarizing film prepared by adsorbing a dichromatic dye, etc., to a stretched film, such as a stretched polyvinyl alcohol film, etc., cannot be effectively used because at least 50% of an incident light is absorbed, and thus it is difficult to increase a luminance and decrease a consumed electric power of a liquid crystal display device, etc. As a result, an optical element having a circular dichroism has been expected. This is because a helical axis of a liquid crystal molecule causes a vertical grandjean orientation to the optical element, in the natural light striking in parallel to the helical axis (incident angle: 0 degree), about a half of the light of a certain wavelength is reflected as a right (or left) circularly polarized light, residual about...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0042] Also, the wavelength region showing the circular dichroism can be controlled by mixing two or more kinds of liquid crystal polymers each having a different wavelength region showing the circular dichroism. Accordingly, as shown in the example described below, an optical element showing a circular dichroism to a light of a visible light region can be easily obtained.

[0051] In laminating, it is preferable to attempt reducing surface reflection loss in each boundary using an adhesive or the like.

[0052] In addition, in the above-described combination, the point of combining the liquid crystal polymer layers each reflecting the circularly polarized light to a same direction aims at preventing each reflected circularly polarized light from becoming a different polarization state by making uniform the phase state of the circularly polarized light reflected at each layer and also improving the efficiency of re-utilizing the reflected circularly polarized lights in the case of re-utilizing the reflected circularly polarized lights via the reflection layers, etc.

[0053] The optical element of the present invention showing the circular dichroism separates an incident light into a right circularly polarized light and a left circularly polarized light based on the circular dichroism thereof and supplies as a transmitted light and a reflected light, and can improve the utilization efficiency of the light by re-utilizing the reflected light via the reflection layer, etc. Thus, the optical element of the present invention can be preferably used as an illuminator such as a polarizing plate, a back light, etc., in various apparatus such as a direct-vision type liquid crystal display device, etc.

[0056] The retardation layer for converting the circularly polarized light to a linearly polarized light is for changing the phase of the circularly polarized light from the optical element and converting to a state having many linearly polarized light components. By converting to the state having many linearly polarized light components, a bright display by the direct incident to a liquid crystal cell and a bright display via the incident to a polarizing plate formed at a liquid crystal cell become possible.

[0059] The retardation layer can be formed as a single layer or two or more layers. In the case of the retardation layer comprising a single layer, the retardation layer showing the small wavelength dispersion of double refraction is preferred because in this case, the homogeneity of the polarized state of each wavelength can be obtained. On the other hand, the lamination of the retardation layers is effective for the improvement of the wavelength characteristics in a wavelength region and the combination thereof may be properly determined according to the wavelength region, etc.

Problems solved by technology

A polarizing film prepared by adsorbing a dichromatic dye, etc., to a stretched film, such as a stretched polyvinyl alcohol film, etc., cannot be effectively used because at least 50% of an incident light is absorbed, and thus it is difficult to increase a luminance and decrease a consumed electric power of a liquid crystal display device, etc.

However, in the former low molecular weight material, because substrates are used, the optical element becomes thick and heavy and there is a problem of hindering light-weighting and thinning of the liquid crystal display.

Also, there is a problem that the orientation state of the liquid crystal, for example, a pitch thereof is liable to be changed by the change of temperature, etc.

On the other hand, in the case of using the latter liquid crystal polymer, it is difficult to obtain a sold material such as a film of a good oriented state as a low molecular weight material, a long time such as several hours, etc., is required for the orientation treatment, the glass transition temperature thereof is low, or the durability is insufficient, resulting in poor practical use.

Thus, in any cases, it is difficult to obtain an optical element having a circular dichroism in a solid state, in particular, the optical element for visible light.

For the purpose of improving the solid state, various attempts of combining monomers, in particular changing monomers having a cholesteric phase-imparting property have been made, but at present the problems of being poor in liquid crystal orienting property and heat resistance have not yet been solved.

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