DISCRIMINATING MEDIUM, METHOD OF DISCRIMINATING THE MEDIUM, ARTICLE TO BE DISCRIMINATED AND DISCRIMINATING DEVICE

摘要

A discriminating medium which cannot be easily forged and is high in authenticity discriminating capability. The discriminating medium comprises, laminated together, a cholesteric liquid crystal layer (106) and a multilayer thin film (103) formed by laminating optical thin films having different refractive indexes to provide unique optical properties that include in a reflection light circular polarizations having different rotating directions. A discriminating method and an article to be discriminated or a discriminating device using such optical properties.