Hyperfine interactions of aluminum-substituted goethites in external magnetic fields

Six goethite samples α(Fe, Al)OOH prepared by a similar synthetic method but varying in Al substitution from 0 to 31 mole percent, have been examined by Mössbauer spectroscopy at ≌ 4 K in an external field of 6 T. The resulting spectra have been fitted by two methods: first a simplified model consisting of three distributions of magnetic fields (parallel, perpendicular and antiparallel orientations of internal and external field) and second, a model-independent bi-dimensional distribution of both the internal hyperfine field and the orientation angle ? with the external field. Both fitting methods show that the angular distribution of spins is not random in the case of high Al substitution, but canted towards an antiparallel orientation (?>90°).