The static director distribution in thin nematic liquid crystal cells, subject to both electric and magnetic fields, has been investigated using a combination of deuterium nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and continuum theory in terms of the director distribution function, which gives the probability density for finding the director at a given orientation. A series of deuterium NMR spectra for the nematic liquid crystal, 4-pentyl-d(2)-4'-cyanobiphenyl deuteriated in the α position of the pentyl chain were acquired as a function of the applied electric field. This powerful experimental technique allowed us to observe uniform and nonuniform director alignment depending on the angle between the two fields and their relative strength. On the basis of the detailed experimental results, we have explored the factors that influence the nature of both the uniform and the nonuniform director distributions. We have discussed the questions that are raised by our attempt to understand the static director distribution as a function of the angle between the two fields. We have discovered that the alignment of the director at the surface of the Teflon spacers is essential in addition to the random variation in the cell thickness in order to account for the static director distribution determined from the NMR spectra.

The dynamic alignment of the nematic director by near-orthogonal electric and magnetic fields has been investigated. The intermediate states during the relaxation process were found, with the aid of time-resolved deuterium NMR spectroscopy, to be markedly nonuniform. The macroscopic order was perturbed, although the initial and final states of the director appear to be essentially uniform. However, the initial state does have a profound influence on the uniformity of the director in the intermediate states. We have developed a fundamental model based on the effect of spontaneous director fluctuations to explain these unusual NMR observations.

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