Disclosed herein is a process of producing a circularly-polarized-light-extracting
optical element adapted to effectively prevent the appearance of bright and dark
stripes on the screen of a display to avoid lowering of the displaying quality
of the display. The circularly-polarized-light-extracting optical element includes
a glass substrate 11, an alignment layer 12 laminated to the glass
substrate 11, and a cholesteric layer 13 formed on the alignment
layer 12, in which molecules are aligned in the sate of planar alignment
due to the alignment-regulating action of the surface of the alignment layer 12.
The cholesteric layer 13 has a first surface 13a on its glass
substrate 11 side, and a second surface 13b opposite to the
first surface 13a. Director directions of molecules on the first
surface 13a of the cholesteric layer 13 are aligned in substantially
one direction owing to the alignment-regulating action of the surface of the alignment
layer 12. Further, the chiral pitch in the cholesteric layer 13 varies
so that the chiral pitch p2 on the second surface 13b side
is longer than the chiral pitch p1 on the first surface 13a side.
