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Two decades have passed since the original discovery of recoilless nuclear gamma resonance by Rudolf Mossbauer; the spectroscopic method based on this resonance effect - referred to as Mossbauer spectroscopy - has developed into a powerful tool in solid-state research. The users are chemists, physicists, biologists, geologists, and scientists from other disciplines, and the spectrum of problems amenable to this method has become extraordinarily broad. In the present volume we have confined ourselves to applications of Mossbauer spectroscopy to the area of transition elements. We hope that the book will be useful not only to non-Mossbauer special­ ists with problem-Oriented activities in the chemistry and physics of transition elements, but also to those actively working in the field of Mossbauer spectroscopy on systems (compounds as well as alloys) of transition elements. The first five chapters are directed to introducing the reader who is not familiar with the technique to the principles of the recoilless nuclear resonance effect, the hyperfme interactions between nuclei and electronic properties such as electric and magnetic fields, some essential aspects about measurements, and the evaluation of Moss­ bauer spectra. Chapter 6 deals with the interpretation of Mossbauer parameters of iron compounds. Here we have placed emphasis on the information about the electronic structure, in correlation with quantum chemical methods, because of its importance for chemical bonding and magnetic properties.

Following the long-standing tradition of the Seeheim-Workshops on Mössbauer Spectroscopy, 1978, 1983, 1988, 1994 always held in the same traditional place of the Lufthansa Training Center in Seeheim/Germany, the 5th workshop took place in 2002. The main topics covered are: -new technical developments such as the techniques of Nuclear Inelastic Scattering (NIS) and Nuclear Forward Scattering (NFS) of Synchrotron Radiation and their applications in studying lattice dynamics, magnetism and surface phenomena; -investigations of molecular structural and bonding properties in biomolecules and coordination compounds; -problems related to geochemistry and earth sciences; -applications of Mössbauer spectroscopy in molecular magnetism and photomagnetism.The book will serve as a source of great actuality to physicists, chemists and geoscientists employing the Mössbauer effect and other hyperfine interaction techniques to explore solid state properties of bulk materials as well as surface phenomena.