In-beam Mössbauer study of 57Fe using a secondary 57Mn beam and ion implantation

We have succeeded in obtaining well-resolved M?ssbauer spectra of ⁵⁷Fe arising from short-lived ⁵⁷Mn ( T _1/2 = 1.45 min) in Si and KMnO₄. The M?ssbauer spectra of ⁵⁷Fe in Si are well fitted with a curve consisting of two singlet lines, one being assigned as the interstitial Fe atoms and the other as substitutional ones. The relative intensities of the two lines infer that 60% of ⁵⁷Fe ( ←⁵⁷Mn) atoms land at the interstitial sites and 40% at the substitutional sites at temperatures between 30 K and 296 K. The result for the KMnO₄ sample suggests a presence of an exotic chemical species corresponding to a higher valence state than Fe^{6 +}. Received: 1 May 2001 / Accepted: 4 December 2001