title: Detection of phase biaxiality in liquid crystals by use of the quadrupole shift in 131Xe NMR spectra.
abstract: An experimental method to unambiguously distinguish between uniaxial and biaxial liquid crystal phases is introduced. The method is based on the second order quadrupole shift (SOQS) observable in 131Xe NMR spectra of xenon dissolved in liquid crystals. It is shown that besides revealing the biaxiality, the 131Xe SOQS offers a novel method to determine the tilt angle in smectic C phases. As an example, the 131Xe SOQS in a ferroelectric liquid crystal is reported. It yields up a biaxial phase in between isotropic and smectic C phases.
authors.affiliation: NMR Research Group, Department of Physics, University of Oulu, Finland. Jukka.Jokisaari@oulu.fi
authors.forename: Jukka P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Jokisaari
authors.forename: Anu M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Kantola
authors.forename: Juhani A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Lounila
authors.forename: L Petri
authors.initials: LP
authors.lastname: Ingman