A liquid crystal medium that has stability to heat, light and so forth, a wide temperature range of a liquid crystal phase and significantly large dielectric anisotropy to develop an optically isotropic liquid crystal phase is required. Moreover, various optical devices that can be used in a wide temperature range, and have a short response time, a large contrast ratio and a low drive voltage are required. A liquid crystal composition contains an achiral component T containing at least one compound (1) represented by formula (1) and a chiral agent to develop an optically isotropic liquid crystal phase, wherein in formula (1), R1 is alkyl having 1 to 12 carbons, L1, L2 and L3 are each independently hydrogen, fluorine or chlorine; and Y1 is fluorine, CF3, or —OCF3.