Polarizing plates and optical display apparatuses including the polarizing plates

1. A polarizing plate comprising:

a polarizer;

at least one optical film on at least one side of the polarizer; and

wherein the optical film comprises a polyester film stretched in a transverse direction (TD) and not stretched in the mechanical direction (MD),

the polyester film having an in-plane phase difference (Ro) of about 5,000 nm to about 15,000 nm at a wavelength of 550 nm,

the polyester film has a shrinkage difference between length shrinkage in a first diagonal direction and length shrinkage in a second diagonal direction of about −0.1% to about +0.1% with respect to a reference direction, the reference direction being either the mechanical direction (MD) or the transverse direction (TD) of the polyester film,

the length shrinkage in the first diagonal direction being represented by Equation 1:

Length shrinkage in the first diagonal direction (%)=( A−B ) /A× 100  Equation 1

wherein, in Equation 1, A is an initial length of a specimen of the polyester film corresponding to the first diagonal direction with respect to the reference direction, and B is a length of the specimen of the polyester film corresponding to the first diagonal direction after allowing the specimen to stand at 85±5° C. for 30 minutes,

the length shrinkage in the second diagonal direction being represented by Equation 2:

Length shrinkage in the second diagonal direction (%)=( C−D )/ C× 100  Equation 2

wherein in Equation 2, C is an initial length of a specimen of the polyester film corresponding to the second diagonal direction with respect to the reference direction, and D is a length of the specimen of the polyester film corresponding to the second diagonal direction after allowing the specimen to stand at 85±5° C. for 30 minutes,

an angle between the first diagonal direction and the second diagonal direction is about 60° to about 120°,

the polyester film is a polyethylene terephthalate film,

the polyester film consists of a single layer film and has a thickness of about 25 μm to about 500 μm, and

the polyester film has a refractive index, nx, in an x-axis direction of the polyester film, and a refractive index, ny, in a y-axis direction of the polyester film, one of nx and ny being 1.65 or greater, and the other of nx and ny being less than 1.65,

the polyester film having an out-of-plane retardation (Rth) of about 12,000 nm or less at a wavelength of 550 nm, as represented by Equation 4:

Rth =(( nx+ny )/2 −nz )× d,   Equation 4

wherein, nx and ny are the refractive indexes in the x-axis and y-axis directions, respectively, of the polyester film, nz is a refractive index in a z-axis direction of the polyester film at a wavelength of 550 nm, and d is a thickness of the polyester film in nm,

wherein the polarizing plate having the at least one optical film on the at least one side of the polarizer has R axis scattering as a measure of optical axis distortion of about 0.1° to about 0.5°.

2. The polarizing plate according to claim 1 , wherein an angle between the first diagonal direction and the reference direction is about 30° to about 60°, and an angle between the second diagonal direction and the reference direction is about 120° to about 150°.

3. The polarizing plate according to claim 1 , wherein the length shrinkage in each of the first diagonal direction and the second diagonal direction is about −0.15% to about +0.15%.

4. The polarizing plate according to claim 1 , wherein the polarizing plate further comprises a second optical film which has a shrinkage difference between length shrinkage in a first diagonal direction of the second optical film and length shrinkage in a second diagonal direction of the second optical film of −0.05% to +0.05% with respect to a reference direction of the second optical film, the reference direction being either the mechanical direction (MD) or the transverse direction (TD) of the second optical film.

5. An optical display apparatus comprising:

the polarizing plate according to claim 1 .