Quadrupole Interaction in Metals: Nuclear Methods

Abstract

Nuclear techniques offer the unique possibility to investigate the hyperfine interaction at isolated impurities in matter. Electric field gradients at impurities in metals have now been determined in numerous systems. An overview of the various techniques - perturbed angular correlation/distribution. Mössbauer spectroscopy, nuclear orientation - is presented. For sp impurities in simple metals the results show a very clear pattern that can be understood in terms of the local density of states. Several recent applications of nuclear methods to more complicated systems like alloys, point defects, diffusion, and surfaces are discussed.