The Rudolf Mössbauer Story
There followed the classical papers by Ruby, Zabransky and Flinn [8, 9] on nuclear motion in viscous surrounding taking into consideration not only the effects of translational but also of rotational diffusion.
The idea to apply SR to study nuclear fluorescence was put forward by Mössbauer [26, 27] and Ruby [28]. The first coherent response of a nuclear ensemble to an SR pulse was unequivocally observed by Gerdau et al. [29].
Starting from 1974, upon a suggestion of S.L. Ruby at Argonne National Laboratory [2], several groups around the world started research programs to make use of synchrotron radiation to replace the radioactive parent isotope as a source. These studies gave their first fruits when a group led by E. Gerdau of Hamburg University made the first unambiguous observation of the excitation of the first energy level above the ground state in 57Fe [3]. Since then, more than a dozen of these transitions have been observed
In 1962, Seppi and Boehm [2] suggested that resonant gamma-rays from radioactive nuclear decays be replaced with X-ray sources to excite the Mössbauer resonance. This was followed by a concrete proposal to use synchrotron radiation by Ruby in 1974 [3]. The ultra-high collimation and brightness of synchrotron radiation beams compared to those of radioactive gamma-ray sources provided new opportunities as demonstrated by the first experiment in 1985 [4], followed by a suite of new techniques.
The idea to apply SR to study nuclear fluorescence was put forward by Mössbauer [26, 27] and Ruby [28]. The first coherent response of a nuclear ensemble to an SR pulse was unequivocally observed by Gerdau et al. [29].
Starting from 1974, upon a suggestion of S.L. Ruby at Argonne National Laboratory [2], several groups around the world started research programs to make use of synchrotron radiation to replace the radioactive parent isotope as a source. These studies gave their first fruits when a group led by E. Gerdau of Hamburg University made the first unambiguous observation of the excitation of the first energy level above the ground state in 57Fe [3]. Since then, more than a dozen of these transitions have been observed
In 1962, Seppi and Boehm [2] suggested that resonant gamma-rays from radioactive nuclear decays be replaced with X-ray sources to excite the Mössbauer resonance. This was followed by a concrete proposal to use synchrotron radiation by Ruby in 1974 [3]. The ultra-high collimation and brightness of synchrotron radiation beams compared to those of radioactive gamma-ray sources provided new opportunities as demonstrated by the first experiment in 1985 [4], followed by a suite of new techniques.