Mößbauer Spectroscopy

Abstract

Mössbauer spectroscopy and related synchrotron radiation‐based nuclear resonance techniques are powerful albeit specialized methods that provide unique insights into the dynamics and coordination of atoms by probing transitions between a nuclear excited state and a nuclear ground state. This chapter provides examples that bear a relation to solid‐state chemistry of how Mössbauer spectroscopy has contributed to our understanding of the structure and properties of materials. A most informative quantity that can be obtained from a Mössbauer spectroscopy experiment is the isomer shift δ. Empirically, this quantity is obtained from the center of mass of a particular component or subspectrum. Whereas the isomer shift provides a localized measure of the electronic density at the nucleus ‐ a Coulomb‐type charge monopole interaction ‐ the quadrupole splitting of the nuclear levels measures the distortion of the spatial distribution of the electronic charge around the nucleus.