Nuclear Resonance Scattering of Synchrotron Radiation as a Unique Electronic, Structural, and Thermodynamic Probe

Abstract

Discovery of Mössbauer effect [1] in a nuclear transition was a remarkable development. It revealed how long-lived nuclear states with relatively low energies in the kiloelectron volt (keV) region can be excited without recoil. This new effect had a unique feature involving a coupling between nuclear physics and solid-state physics, both in terms of physics and sociology. Physics coupling originates from the fact that recoilless emission and absorption or resonance is only possible if the requirement that nuclei have to be bound in a lattice with quantized vibrational states is fulfilled, and that the finite electron density on the nucleus couples to nuclear degrees of freedom leading to hyperfine interactions. Thus, Mössbauer spectroscopy allows peering into solid-state effects using unique nuclear transitions. Sociological aspects of this coupling had been equally startling and fruitful. The interaction between diverse scientific communities, who learned to use Mössbauer spectroscopy proved to be very valuable. For example, biologists, geologists, chemists, physicists, materials scientists, and archeologists, all sharing a common spectroscopic technique, also learned to appreciate the beauty and intricacies of each other’s fields. As a laboratory-based technique, Mössbauer spectroscopy matured by the end of the 1970s. Further exciting developments took place when accelerator-based techniques were employed, like synchrotron radiation or “in-beam” Mössbauer experiments with implanted radioactive ions. More recently, two Mössbauer spectrometers on the surface of the Mars kept the technique vibrant and viable up until present time.