Chain dynamics in a chiral C phase by deuteron spin relaxation study

Molecular reorientations and internal conformational transitions of an aligned chiral liquid crystal (LC) 10B1M7 are studied by means of deuterium spin-lattice relaxation in its smectic A (SmA) and smectic C* (SmC*) phase. The motional model which is applicable to uniaxial phases of many LCs is found to be adequate even when the phase is a tilted SmC* phase. The deuterium NMR spectrum in this phase cannot discern rotations of the molecular director about the pitch axis. The basic assumption is that the phase biaxiality is practically unobservable. However, the relaxation rates can be accounted for by the tilt angle between the molecular director and the layer normal in the SmC* phase. The tumbling motion appears to show a higher activation energy upon entering from the uniaxial SmA into the SmC* phase.