Zeon Corporation

Nikkiso Company Limited

National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology

Panasonic Electric Works Co., Ltd.

Kohei Arakawa

Shunsuke Yamanaka

Tetsuya Toyoshima

Motohiro Itadani

Shuhei Okude

Masanori Yoshihara

Toshihide Murakami

Taku Hatano

Akiyoshi Shibuya

Takeyuki Yamaki

Kenji Hata

Mitsugu Uejima

Motoo Yumura

Masahiko Hayashi

Hiroshi Yokogawa

Atsushi Sone

Akira Tsujimoto

Ryozo Fukuzaki

Takashi Ohsaki

Keiichi Kawata

Megumi Fujita

Katsuhiro Kurosaki

Takurou Kumamoto

A method for producing a retardation film comprising the steps of: co-extruding or simultaneously casting a thermoplastic resin A and a thermoplastic resin B to obtain a laminated film comprising a layer of the thermoplastic resin A and a layer of the thermoplastic resin B; and uniaxially stretching the laminated film at least twice to cross a molecular orientation axis in the layer of the thermoplastic resin A and a molecular orientation axis in the layer of the thermoplastic resin B each other at almost right angles.

Method for producing retardation film

A protective film for polarizing plate made by laminating k layers (k being an integer of 2 to 7) of thermoplastic resin, in which a refractive index n(&#x3bb;) at a wavelength X in the range of 380 to 780 nm of the i th thermoplastic resin layer as well as a refractive index n(&#x3bb;) at a wavelength &#x3bb;in the range of 380 to 780 nm of the i+1 th thermoplastic resin layer have a relationship of In |n(&#x3bb;)&#x2212;n(&#x3bb;)|&#x2266;0.045 (i being an integer of 1 to k&#x2212;l); and a polarizing plate comprising the protective film and a polarizer. The protective film has an in-plane retardation Re at a wavelength &#x3bb;of 550 nm of 50 nm or less, and is obtained by coextruding at least one layer (A) of thermoplastic resin having of a negative photoelastic coefficient with at least one layer (B) of thermoplastic resin having a positive photoelastic coefficient.

Protective film for polarizing plate

An optical laminate having layer A having a resin having a negative intrinsic birefringence and at least one layer B having a transparent resin, having substantially no orientation and laminated at least on one face of layer A and satisfies a relation |Re(A)|&#x3e;|Re(B)|, wherein Re(A) and Re(B) represent in-plane retardations of layer A and layer B, respectively, measured with light having a wavelength of 400 to 700 nm, an optical element having a laminate of the optical laminate and a polarizer plate, and a liquid crystal display device using at least one sheet of the optical laminate. In the liquid crystal display device, optical compensation can be made in accordance with the mode of the liquid crystal display by the three dimensional control of the refractive index, and the liquid crystal display device provides an image display with liquid crystals exhibiting small change in the phase contrast depending on the viewing angle.

Optical laminate, optical element and liquid crystal display device

A liquid crystal display device of an in-plane switching mode comprises at least optically anisotropic members (A) and (B) and a liquid crystal cell disposed between a pair of polarizers having absorption axes disposed approximately perpendicularly to each other, wherein n&#x3e;nand n&#x3e;n(n, n: refractive indices (n) in the direction of the in-plane slow axis; n, n: n in the in-plane direction perpendicular to the above direction; n, n: n in the direction of thickness, each at 550 nm); the in-plane slow axes of (A) and (B) are approximately parallel or perpendicular to each other; and the in-plane slow axis of (A) is approximately parallel or perpendicular to the absorption axis of a polarizer closer to (A). The antireflection property, scratch resistance and durability are excellent, the angle of field is wide, and uniform display of images with great contrast can be achieved at any angle of observation.

Liquid crystal display device

A protective film for polarizing plate comprising k layers (k is an integer of 2 or more) of thermoplastic resin layer laminated, wherein

A liquid crystal display device of an in-plane switching mode comprises a pair of polarizing plates which are constituted with a polarizing plate at the output side comprising a polarizer at the output side and a polarizing plate at the incident side comprising a polarizer at the incident side having a transmission axis approximately perpendicular to a transmission axis of the polarizer at the output side and two or more sheets of optically anisotropic members and liquid crystal cells disposed between the pair of polarizing plates. The device exhibits excellent scratch resistance and excellent quality of black depth and uniform and high contrast in viewing at any angles.

An apparatus of the present invention for producing an aligned carbon-nanotube aggregate is an apparatus for producing an aligned carbon-nanotube aggregate by synthesizing the aligned carbon-nanotube aggregate on a base material having a catalyst on a surface thereof, the apparatus including: a formation unit that processes a formation step of causing an environment surrounding the catalyst to be an environment of a reducing gas and heating at least either the catalyst or the reducing gas; a growth unit that processes a growth step of synthesizing the aligned carbon-nanotube aggregate by causing the environment surrounding the catalyst to be an environment of a raw material gas and by heating at least either the catalyst or the raw material gas; and a transfer unit that transfers the base material at least from the formation unit to the growth unit. Thus provided is a production apparatus and a production method that are capable of improving efficiency in the production of aligned CNT aggregates by preventing a decrease in production volume and deterioration in quality of aligned CNT aggregates in serial production and by making it easy to increase the size of the apparatus.

Apparatus and method for producing aligned carbon-nanotube aggregates

A lengthy grid polarizer film comprising a lengthy resin film and a plurality of grid lines provided on the surface and/or inside of the resin film and extending substantially in parallel with each other are provided, the grid lines being made of a material G being 1.0 or more in the absolute value of the difference between the real part nand the imaginary part &#x3ba;of the complex refractive index (N=n&#x2212;i&#x3ba;), said resin film having a plurality of rows of grooves formed extending substantially in parallel with each other on its surface, and said grid line being made of a thin film of the laminated material G on the bottom face of the grooves and/or on the top face of ridges located between the adjacent grooves. A lengthy optical laminated body comprises the lengthy grid polarizer film and another lengthy polarizing optical film.

Grid polarizing film, method for producing the film, optical laminate, method for producing the laminate, and liquid crystal display

A liquid crystal display device of an in-plane switching mode comprises at least an optically anisotropic member and a liquid crystal cell disposed between a pair of polarizers having absorption axes disposed approximately perpendicularly to each other, wherein n&#x3e;n&#x3e;n(n: a refractive index (n) in the direction of the in-plane slow axis; n: n in the in-plane direction perpendicular to the above direction; n: n in the direction of thickness, each at 550 nm); the optically anisotropic member comprises a layer comprising a material having a negative value of intrinsic birefringence; and the in-plane slow axis of the optically anisotropic member is approximately parallel or perpendicular to the absorption axis of a polarizer closer to the member. The antireflection property, scratch resistance and durability are excellent, the angle of field is wide, and uniform display of images with great contrast can be achieved at any angle of observation.

In-plane switching mode liquid crystal display device having a biaxial optically anisotropic member

A liquid crystal display device of an in-plane switching mode comprises at least optically anisotropic members (A) and (B) and liquid crystal cell disposed between a pair of polarizers having absorption axes disposed approximately perpendicularly to each other, wherein n&#x3e;nand n&#x3e;n(n, n:refractive indices (n) in the direction of the in-plane slow axis; n, n:n in the in-plane direction perpendicular to the above direction; n, n:n in the direction of thickness, each at 550 nm); the in-plane slow axes of (A) and (B) are approximately parallel or perpendicular to each other; and the in-plane slow axis of (A) is approximately parallel or perpendicular to the absorption axis of a polarizer closer to (A). The antireflection property, scratch resistance and durability are excellent, the angle of field is wide, and uniform display of images with great contrast can be achieved at any angle of observation.

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Tokyo, Japan

Kohei Arakawa