Roto-translational diffusion of biaxial probes in uniaxial liquid crystal phases

Abstract

We discuss the problem of roto-translational diffusion of a rigid biaxial molecule dissolved in a uniaxial smectic liquid crystal phase. We examine distorted rod and disklike molecules and show how biaxiality and roto-translational coupling can produce significant effects on some of the correlation functions and spectral densities most useful in analyzing experimental observables.