In 1988 the Mossbauer effect community completed 30 years of continual contribution to the fields of nuclear physics, solid state science, and a variety of related disciplines. To celebrate this anniversary, Professor Gonser of the Universitat des Saarlandes has contributed a chapter to this volume on the history of the effect. Although Mossbauer spectroscopy has reached its mature years, the chapters in this volume illustrate that it is still a dynamic field of science with applications to topics ranging from permanent magnets to biologi cal mineralization. During the discussion of a possible chapter for this volume, a potential author asked, "Do we really need another Mossbauer book?" The editors responded in the affirmative because they believe that a volume of this type offers several advantages. First, it provides the author with an opportunity to write a personal view of the subject, either with or without extensive pedagogic content. Second, there is no artificially imposed restriction on length. In response to the question, "How long should my chapter be?," we have responded that it should be as long as is necessary to clearly present, explain, and evaluate the topic. In this type of book, it is not necessary to condense the topic into two, four, or eight pages as is now so often a requirement for publication in the research literature.

Inhalt

1. The Early Days of the Effect.- 2. Mössbauer Effect Studies of Hard Magnetic Materials.- 3. Mössbauer Effect Studies of Oxidic Spinels.- 4. Evaluation of Distributed Hyperfine Parameters.- 5. Radio Frequency Field-Induced Effects in Ferromagnetic Materials.- 6. Mössbauer Spectroscopic Studies of the High Oxidation States of Iron.- 7. Mössbauer Spectroscopic Studies of Intercalation Compounds.- 8. Mössbauer Spectroscopy of Iron and Iron-Molybdenum Hydrotreating Catalysts.- 9. The Use and Potential of Mössbauer Spectroscopy in Studies of Biological Mineralization.- 10. Characterization of Semiconductors by Mössbauer Spectroscopy.- 11. Mössbauer Spectroscopy of Europium-Containing Compounds.- Author Index.