Deuterium nuclear magnetic resonance (2H??NMR) was performed on the rigid perdeuterated fluorene segment of the compound 2??fluorenyl??4'??tetradecyloxy benzoate (FLOC 14??d 9) to unambiguously measure the order parameter U which reflects the degree of asymmetric ordering of the molecule in the nematic liquid crystalline phase. Measurements of U showed this parameter to be finite at all temperatures in the nematic ...
