Molecular dynamics in a nematic liquid crystal probed by implanted muons -art. no. 054204

We present the first muon spin rotation/relaxation study of a nematic liqui d crystal (5CB). We identify four different positions for muonium addition to this compound by correlating the dominant peaks in the Fourier transform of the muon precession signal obtained in an applied transverse magnetic f ield. Experiments performed in a longitudinal field are used to probe chang es in individual molecular dynamics at the solid-nematic transition. High f ield avoided level crossing spectroscopy reveals four DeltaM = 0 transition s which can be fitted using simplified models of collective molecular dynam ics appropriate to the solid, nematic, and liquid phases.