Two-dimensional Mössbauer spectrometer based on Arduino technology

Abstract

Mössbauer (MB) spectroscopy is the most sensitive method for analysing iron compounds and complexes available. It is widely used to determine the spin state of switching iron complexes. A well-tuned Spectrometer is capable of obtaining spectra with proper signal to noise ratios. Therefore, selecting the correct energy range out of the whole spectrum of the Mössbauer source is crucial, especially, when complex samples are measured. In this paper, we show further development of our previous works – A functional two-dimensional Mössbauer spectrometer. The key part of our system is a two-dimensional counter array, which stores every photon event detected according to its energy and velocity. This enables us to calculate Mössbauer spectra in different energy ranges to tune a proper signal to noise ratio. For that, we show the drop of the signal to noise ratio when energy ranges are changed.Furthermore, as our approach handles every photon event detected, our system is capable of overserving not only one transition line. For 57Fe there is, beside the 14.4 keV line, an X-ray emission at 6.4 keV from the internal conversion of absorbed gamma rays. With our approach it is possible to observe both lines simultaneously.