ELECTRONIC AND MAGNETIC-PROPERTIES OF THE 4F AND 5F INTERMETALLICS FROM MOSSBAUER-SPECTROSCOPY

Over the years Mossbauer spectroscopy has proved to be an important to ol for the study of f-electron systems. Through measurements of the hy perfine interactions, this microscopic technique gives access to the c harge state of the resonant atom (isomer shift), to its local symmetry (quadrupole splitting) and to the magnetic moment associated with its open electron shells (magnetic splitting). With the help of a few exa mples taken from recent work we demonstrate the power of this techniqu e for obtaining information on the electronic and magnetic properties of 4f and 5f intermetallics. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science S.A.