Mössbauer effect and atomic diffusion : A critical survey and ... one more interpretation

Abstract

Experimental observations of the diffusion broadening of the Mössbauer resonance in solids have generally been analyzed on the basis of a random flight model. Some experiments indicate that the broadening is sometimes smaller than the value predicted by theory. Several papers have been published in an attempt to explain this discrepancy by correlation effects, crystal structure effects, jump diffusion dimensionality, or by the influence of the absorber's effective thickness. In this paper, we evaluate these corrections by means of a comparison with data obtained from other experimental approaches such as the tracer-sectioning method. Finally we propose one more interpretation in terms of a diffusion mechanism