A deuterium nuclear magnetic resonance investigation of the director distribution in a thin nematic liquid crystal slab

Luckhurst, G. R., Sugimura, A. and Timimi, B. A. (2000) A deuterium nuclear magnetic resonance investigation of the director distribution in a thin nematic liquid crystal slab. Molecular Crystals and Liquid Crystals, 347, 297-307.

Abstract

The director distribution in a thin nematic liquid crystal (NLC), 4-pentyl-d(2)-4'-cyanobiphenyl (5CB-d(2)) deuteriated in the ex-position of the pentyl chain, confined between two glass plates, with untreated and treated anchoring conditions, has been investigated using a deuterium nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). The NMR spectra have been measured as a function of the applied electric field. In the absence of surface forces it is found that the director aligns parallel to the magnetic field at relatively low values of the electric field as Delta is positive for 5CB. In the presence of surface forces with increasing electric field the quadrupolar splitting decreases, passes through zero and then increases again to a value which is essentially half of that at zero electric field. That is, the director orientation changes more or less continuously from being parallel to the magnetic field to being orthogonal to it, as the electric field grows.

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