A rapid determination of nuclear quadrupole resonance frequencies using field-cycling magnetic resonance and frequency modulated RF excitations.

A modification of Slusher-Hahn's double resonance technique is described and experimentally tested. It is based on application of multiple frequency sweeps and can be used for a rapid location of nuclear quadrupole resonance (NQR) frequencies. The resolution of the present technique is relatively low but, when the NQR frequencies are located, it is easy to use either the Slusher-Hahn's technique or pulse NQR to determine the NQR frequencies with a higher precision.

(39)K NMR and EPR study of multiferroic K(3)Fe(5)F(15).

(39)K NMR spectra and relaxation times of polycrystalline K(3)Fe(5)F(15) have been used as a microscopic detector of the local magnetic fields at the magnetic transition at T(N) = 123 K. The NMR lineshape widens abruptly upon crossing T(N) due to the onset of internal magnetic fields, while we find no significant lineshift. The paraelectric to ferroelectric transition at T(c) = 490 K and the magnetic transition at T(N) have also been studied using X-band EPR (electron paramagnetic resonance). An increase and subsequent decrease in the EPR susceptibilities is observed on approaching T(N) from above. There is also a significant increase in the linewidth. At the same time the g-factor first decreases and then increases with decreasing temperature. The local magnetic field is different at different K sites and is much smaller than the magnetic field around the Fe sites. This seems to be consistent with the behaviour of a weak ferrimagnet. The ferrimagnetism does not seem to be due to spin canting as the lattice is disordered, but may arise from thermal blocking of superparamagnetic percolation clusters. The ferroelectric transition at T(c) shows no electronic anomaly, demonstrating that we are dealing with a classical phonon anomaly as found in conventional oxides rather than an electronic transition.

Surface-induced order and diffusion in 5CB liquid crystal confined to porous glass.

Liquid crystals confined into small cavities are known to have a weak orientational order even above the nematic-isotropic transition temperature. The surface-induced order and molecular dynamics in this temperature range are studied with the aid of deuteron NMR spectra, spin relaxation times T(1) and T(2,) proton dipolar-correlation effect, and direct measurements of the effective diffusion coefficient for the liquid crystal 5CB confined to controlled-pore glasses. Our results show that an arrangement of molecules parallel to the wall is induced by local molecular interactions between the liquid crystal and solid, resulting in a weak and temperature independent surface order parameter, S(0) approximately 0.02 +/- 0.01. There is no indication of a significant slowing-down of molecular diffusion at the wall, neither rotational nor translational. In cavities of nanometer size, where the nematic order evolves gradually upon cooling, a broadening of the NMR linewidths due to dynamic effects should be taken into account.

Interlayer molecular exchange in an anticlinically ordered chiral liquid crystal

The interlayer molecular exchange has been determined in the antiferroelectric smectic-C(*)(A) phase of alphad(2) deuterated 4-(1-methylheptyloxycarbonyl)phenyl4(')-octyloxybiphenyl-4-carboxylat e via quadrupolar deuteron NMR self-diffusion in the spatially varying electric field gradient produced by the anticlinic smectic layer structure. The interlayer self-diffusion coefficient is here by two orders of magnitude smaller than in synclinically ordered smectic phases. The results support the entropic suppression model of the origin of anticlinic smectic ordering. The applied technique could possibly allow for a new insight into the local structure of the intermediate "clock" phases.