Anomalous Alignment and Dynamic Scattering in Liquid Crystals Exhibiting a Positive Dielectric Anisotropy

Molecular alignment owing to ionic conductivity anisotropy, Williams' Domains and dynamic scattering have been observed in the nematic phase of p-butyloxybenzoic acid which exhibits positive dielectric and conductivity anisotropies. This was observed for both dc and ac electric fields. Other nematic materials with positive dielectric anisotropies which do not show strong ac effects are discussed. The possibility of hydrogen bonds breaking at the transition temperature to account for a change in the microwave dielectric loss is mentioned.