INFLUENCE OF RADIATION-DAMAGE ON THE HYPERFINE FIELD OF TRITON IRRADIATED NICKEL FOILS

The recently observed Mossbauer effect in Ni-63 enables the study of t he hyperfine field in nickel with high resolution. In the present pape r, the line broadening of the Mossbauer resonance is analyzed in order to study the influence of radiation damage on the magnetic hyperfine field in Ni-64 foils. Each of these foils was irradiated by tritons at 15 K with a total current integral of 2.4 mu A h in order to produce the short-lived Co-63 sources (T-1/2=27 s). An upper limit of 4.6 kG w as estimated for the standard deviation of the magnetic hyperfine fiel d distribution which resulted from the accumulated radiation damage. F or the annealed absorber material the standard deviation of the magnet ic field is less than 53 G.