Skip to main content

Colloquium: Dominic Ryan (McGill University)

Feb 27, 2023 - 4:10 PM
to , -
A colloquium speaker, a tiny car and an airplane wing.

Dominic Ryan, McGill University

Hosts: Paul Canfield, Raquel Riberio, Sergey Budko

Title: Mössbauer spectroscopy: Using nuclei to study materials

In 1957 Rudolph Mössbauer discovered the effect that bears his name and the subsequent explosion of activity led Physical Review Letters to ban papers using the technique!  Sixty years later, problems and restrictions associated with handling radioactive materials have led to a steady decline in the number of laboratories using Mössbauer spectroscopy but demand for results from it continues to be strong — some companies will even pay for the data.

In my talk I will show how the physics behind the Mössbauer effect leads to many different ways to use it, and in turn these different methodologies allow Mössbauer spectroscopy to be applied to a wide range of problems in biology, chemistry, mineralogy, metallurgy, materials science and physics. Two Mössbauer spectrometers were even landed on Mars. I have used Mössbauer spectroscopy to look at rechargeable battery materials, permanent magnets, iron supplements, mineral extraction and waste remediation, as well as the more usual pursuits of a physicist — weird magnetic materials and spin glasses.