Changes in the conformation and electronic structure of molecules upon phase transitions in a uniaxial liquid crystal

Abstract

Changes in the electronic structure (the displacement of levels and changes in the oscillator strength of the long-wavelength transition) and the conformation of the aromatic skeleton of the molecules in a liquid crystal of 4-n-octyloxy-4'-cyanobiphenyl have been discovered experimentally upon the isotropic-liquid-nematic-smectic A phase transitions. A functional dependence of the oscillator strengths of the electronic transitions of the molecules on the macroscopic orientational and transitional order parameters of the liquid crystal has been established and confirmed experimentally.