The Mossbauer Drive System

The motion of a Mossbauer source must be controlled with an accuracy of 10 mm s or better to resolve sharp Mossbauer spectral lines, such as those of 

Fe which have full width 2r at 0.2 mm s . Other isotopes are less demanding, e.g., Au, for which the lines are ten times wider. Most spectrometers are equipped with electromechanical Mossbauer velocity transducers of the loudspeaker type. This technique is suitable for velocity variations ranging from less than 1 mm s full scale up to several cm s and covers the whole reach of hyperfine splitting for most of the common isotopes. Kalvius, Kankeleit, Cranshaw, and others [1-5] have been pioneers in the field, who laid foundations for the development of high-precision drives with feedback amplifiers for proper linear velocity scales with high stability and low hum. Other techniques for Doppler modulation have been developed for isotopes with extremely narrow hyperfine lines, e.g., Zn. For such isotopes, piezoelectric transducers are mostly used [6, 7], more details of which are found in Sect. 7.2.1. 

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