title: Macroscopic order in a nematic liquid crystal: Perturbation by spontaneous director fluctuations.
abstract: The dynamic alignment of the nematic director by near-orthogonal electric and magnetic fields has been investigated. The intermediate states during the relaxation process were found, with the aid of time-resolved deuterium NMR spectroscopy, to be markedly nonuniform. The macroscopic order was perturbed, although the initial and final states of the director appear to be essentially uniform. However, the initial state does have a profound influence on the uniformity of the director in the intermediate states. We have developed a fundamental model based on the effect of spontaneous director fluctuations to explain these unusual NMR observations.
authors.affiliation: School of Information Systems Engineering, Osaka Sangyo University, 3-1-1 Nakagaito, Daito-Shi, Osaka 574-4853, Japan.
authors.forename: Daichi
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Hamasuna
authors.affiliation: School of Chemistry, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Rauzah
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Hashim
authors.affiliation: School of Information Systems Engineering, Osaka Sangyo University, 3-1-1 Nakagaito, Daito-Shi, Osaka 574-4853, Japan.
authors.forename: Atsuhiro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kasatani
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Southampton, Highfield, Southampton SO17 1BJ, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Geoffrey R
authors.initials: GR
authors.lastname: Luckhurst
authors.affiliation: School of Information Systems Engineering, Osaka Sangyo University, 3-1-1 Nakagaito, Daito-Shi, Osaka 574-4853, Japan.
authors.forename: Akihiko
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sugimura
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Southampton, Highfield, Southampton SO17 1BJ, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Bakir A
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Timimi
authors.affiliation: Department of Biophysics, Max-Planck-Institut für Medizinische Forschung, Jahnstrasse 29, D-69120 Heidelberg, Germany.
authors.forename: Herbert
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zimmermann