NMR evidence for an ionic conduction-induced flow alignment angle in nematic liquid crystals

The molecular alignment resulting from the material flow caused by an electric field was monitored using nuclear magnetic resonance techniques. The NMR spectra observed clearly imply the existence of uniformly oriented regions in the sample in which the nematic director makes a small angle with respect to the electric field. The measurements reported here were made in bulk samples (electrode separation = 0.1 cm), but there is reason to believe that a similar result should obtain for dynamic scattering in thin samples.