Polarized fluorescence measurements of orientational order in a uniaxial liquid crystal

Abstract

The second and fourth orientational order parameters 〈P₂〉 and 〈P₄〉, have been measured throughout the liquid crystalline phase of p‐methoxybenzylidene‐p′‐n‐butylaniline (MBBA) using small quantities of a fluorescent probe. Complications of rotational Brownian motion and the intramolecular transfer of excitation energy were considered in the analysis. The results are in agreement with previous Raman measurements on the doped liquid crystal.