NMR Study of the Molecular Order in a Liquid Crystal with Peculiar Smectic Phases

Abstract

We present a NMR study of the molecular order in a compound presenting three bilayer smectic mesophases: S_A2: S_C2 and S_C? anticlinic-like). Two different models are proposed for the interpretation of the angular dependence of experimental dipolar splittings observed for the S_c2 and S_C?, respectively. The results presented here are in agreement with the model initially proposed in the literature for the S_C? mesophase. In particular we present here the estimation of the two tilt angles associated with the structure of the S_C? phase.

Key Words:

• molecular order
• smectic C
• anticlinic
• NMR