Method for producing viewing angle compensator for liquid crystal display

A method for producing a viewing angle compensator for a liquid crystal display comprising the steps of:

• (i) applying a coating to a light transmitting substrate having an alignment layer thereon wherein said coating comprises (A) an optically active polyester containing as a constituent a hydrocarbon unit selected from the group consisting of (a) a radical selected from the group consisting of ##STR50## where X is chlorine or bromine, C.sub.1 -C.sub.4 alkoxy, C.sub.1 -C.sub.4 alkyl or phenyl, and k is 0 to 2:
• (b) polycyclic hydrocarbon units;
• and (c) aromatic units having a substituent selected from the group consisting of a hydrocarbon group of 3 to 8 carbon atoms, a halogen atom and mixtures thereof, with the proviso that these units exclude the units encompassed by (a);
• or (B) a composition containing a liquid crystalline polyester which contains said hydrocarbon unit as a constituent and an optically active compound;
• (ii) heat treating the applied coating of step (i) at a temperature higher than the glass transition temperature of the polyester to form a cholesteric structure;
• and
• (iii) cooling said heat-treated coating to a temperature lower than said glass transition temperature to solidify said cholesteric structure, thereby producing a viewing angle compensator wherein said compensator has a product (.DELTA.n.multidot.p), calculated by multiplying birefringence (.DELTA.n) by pitch length (p) of the heat-treated coating, of less than 600 nm.