METHOD OF FORMING PHOTO-ALIGNMENT FILM AND METHOD OF FORMING LIQUID CRYSTAL LAYER

Provided are a method of forming a photo-alignment film having a large size that can appropriately align a liquid crystal compound can be formed and a method of forming a liquid crystal layer having a large size in which alignment defects of a liquid crystal compound can be suppressed. The method of forming a photo-alignment film includes: an exposure step of irradiating a surface of a photo-alignment film including a photo-alignment material that is formed on a support with interference light formed by intersection of two light components such that the surface of the photo-alignment film is exposed to form, on the photo-alignment film, an 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; and a moving step of moving the support by a distance D in a direction parallel to the surface of the support and parallel to a straight line formed by optical axes of the two beams, in which the photo-alignment film is exposed by alternately repeating the exposure step and the moving step. Here, the distance D is represented by λ/{2×sin(α/2)}×N−λ/8