Optical element, light guide element, and image display device

An optical element comprising a plurality of patterned cholesteric liquid crystal layers that are obtained by immobilizing a cholesteric liquid crystalline phase,

• wherein the patterned cholesteric liquid crystal layers have different twisted directions of helical structures,
• the patterned cholesteric liquid crystal layers have a liquid crystal alignment pattern in which a direction of an optical axis derived from a liquid crystal compound changes while continuously rotating in at least one in-plane direction,
• the patterned cholesteric liquid crystal layers have regions having different pitches of helical structures in a plane,
• in a case where a length over which the direction of the optical axis derived from the liquid crystal compound rotates by 180° in a plane is set as a single period, the patterned cholesteric liquid crystal layers have regions having different lengths of the single periods,
• the patterned cholesteric liquid crystal layers having different twisted directions of the helical structures have the same selective reflection center wavelength, and
• in the patterned cholesteric liquid crystal layers having different twisted directions of helical structures, directions in which the direction of the optical axis derived from the liquid crystal compound continuously rotates in the liquid crystal alignment pattern are different from each other.