Magnetic resonance and calorimetric studies of 4’-n-pentyl-4-cyanobiphenyl confined to Vycor glass, a random network of pores with average diameter ∼70 Å, are reported. Under such severely constrained ocnditions, the nematic-to-isotropic transition is replaced by a continuous evolution of orientational order in the pores. Our findings are explained by a Landau type of model where the liquid crystal is confined to independent pore segments, suggesting that the glassylike orientational order is to a large extend locally determined.

• Received 10 June 1993

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.71.2595