Two decades have passed since the original discovery of recoilless
nuclear gamma resonance by Rudolf Mossbauer; the spectroscopic method
based on this resonance effect - referred to as Mossbauer spectroscopy -
has developed into a powerful tool in solid-state research. The users
are chemists, physicists, biologists, geologists, and scientists from
other disciplines, and the spectrum of problems amenable to this method
has become extraordinarily broad. In the present volume we have confined
ourselves to applications of Mossbauer spectroscopy to the area of
transition elements. We hope that the book will be useful not only to
non-Mossbauer special- ists with problem-Oriented activities in the
chemistry and physics of transition elements, but also to those actively
working in the field of Mossbauer spectroscopy on systems (compounds as
well as alloys) of transition elements. The first five chapters are
directed to introducing the reader who is not familiar with the
technique to the principles of the recoilless nuclear resonance effect,
the hyperfme interactions between nuclei and electronic properties such
as electric and magnetic fields, some essential aspects about
measurements, and the evaluation of Moss- bauer spectra. Chapter 6 deals
with the interpretation of Mossbauer parameters of iron compounds. Here
we have placed emphasis on the information about the electronic
structure, in correlation with quantum chemical methods, because of its
importance for chemical bonding and magnetic properties.