Mossbauer insight to metallurgy, materials science and engineering

A brief overview of the contributions which Mossbauer effect spectroscopy h as made to areas of materials science is presented. A survey of the literat ure reveals the decreasing trends of established areas, with emergence in t he past decade or so of new areas such as nanostructured materials and mate rials produced by mechanochemical treatment and the continuing importance o f rare-earth magnetic materials. Examples of applications of Fe-57 and Sn-1 19 Mossbauer spectroscopy, both transmission and backscattering, are discus sed. The complementary nature of Mossbauer spectroscopy and neutron diffrac tion in delineation of the magnetic behaviour and structures of materials i s demonstrated by the La1-xYxMn2Si2 series of rare-earth intermetallic comp ounds.