LIQUID CRYSTAL OPTICAL DEVICE AND ITS PRODUCTION PROCESS

摘要

A liquid crystal optical device comprising a pair of substrates having an electrode pair formed; a liquid crystal layer sandwiched between the substrates; an alignment layer to align the liquid crystal, provided on each of the facing surfaces of the substrates; and a polymer structure provided on the alignment layer; wherein the polymer structure is formed by curing a curable compound represented by the following formula (1), and when a voltage is not applied, liquid crystal molecules in the vicinity of an interface between the liquid crystal layer and the polymer structure have at least one direction of director different from the alignment direction by the alignment layer: A1-O—R1—O—Z—O—R2—O-A2   Formula (1) wherein each of A1 and A2 is independently a curable functional group to be polymerized by an external energy, each of R1 and R2 is independently selected from a linear alkylene group with carbon number of 2 to 5 which may have a methyl group or an ethyl group as a branched chain, and Z is a bivalent mesogen structure.