ABSTRACTThe discovery of the oblique chiral (or, the twist-bend, NTB) nematic phase predicted for bent-core mesogens has engendered much interest due to its unique structure and physical properties, and the possibility of use in the next generation of fast electro-optic technology. Bimesogenic calamitic as well as bent-core mesogens are found to form the NTB phase. Here, we report direct measurements of the temperature dependence of the conical tilt and the evidence of volcano-like orientational distribution of molecules in the NTB phase. Optical and x-ray scattering investigations of two single-component calamitic bimesogens and their mixtures show that, while the Maier–Saupe orientational distribution function (ODF) is valid for the higher temperature nematic phase, a generalised expansion in terms of even Legendre functions is needed for the NTB phase. Temperature dependence of the ODFs and the order parameters 〈P2(cosβ)〉, 〈P4(cosβ)〉, and 〈P6(cosβ)〉 has been measured in both phases. The parameters 〈P2(cosβ)〉 and 〈P4(cosβ)〉 increase/decrease in the N/NTB phase with decreasing temperature, while 〈P6(cosβ)〉 remains vanishingly small for all samples. The value of 〈P4(cosβ)〉 becomes negative in the NTB phase confirming a conical distribution of molecules as they follow a helical trajectory keeping the local director tilted at an angle α wrt the macroscopic director. The heliconical tilt calculated from ODFs, exhibits a power law behaviour with temperature, vanishing at the transition to the N phase.