Nuclear Resonant Scattering of synchrotron radiation

[Robin Vrielynck]

The Nuclear Resonant scattering of synchrotron radiation (NRS SR) is a scattering experiment that studies the transitions between nuclear energy levels. The type of experiment is similar to the Mössbauer spectroscopy. But in this experiment, we study the time spectra (intensity – time) instead of energy spectra (intensity – energy/velocity).
The system gets excited by absorbing synchrotron radiation (photons). After a few nanoseconds, the system will decay again towards the initial state. Due to this decay, an interference pattern is generated, because of superposition of the emitted beams from different close-to-each-other energy levels (hyperfine splitting). This interference pattern is plotted in a so-called time spectrum.
By making a Fourier transformation, we can obtain the corresponding frequencies to each transition. By obtaining these frequencies, hyperfine parameters like the magnetic hyperfine field, the isomer shift, quadrupole shift,… can be calculated.
Furthermore, we deduce magnetic properties by looking at the orientation of the magnetization. The orientation of the incident wave-vector with respect to the magnetic hyperfine field will give different time spectra.

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