Nuclear Dynamical Diffraction Using Synchrotron Radiation

The scattering of synchrotron radiation by nuclei is extensively explored in this thesis. From the multipole electric field expansion resulting from time-dependent nonrelativistic perturbation theory, a dynamical scattering theory is constructed. This theory is shown, in the many particle limit, to be equivalent to the semi-classical approach where a quantum mechanical scattering amplitude is used in the Maxwell inhomogeneous wave equation. The Miissbauer specimen whose low-lying energy levels were probed is a ferromagnetic lattice of 57Fe embedded in a yttrium iron garnet (YIG) crystal matrix. The hyperfine fields in YIG thin films were studied at low and room temperature using time-resolved quantum beat spectroscopy. Nuclear hyperfine structure quantum beats were measured using a fast plastic scintillator coincidence photodetector and associated electronics having a time resolution of 2.5 nsec. The variation of the quantum beat patterns near the Bragg [0 0 21 diffraction peak gave a Lamb-Mijssbauer factor of 8.2 + 0.4 . Exploring characteristic dynamical features in the higher order YIG [0 0 lo] reflection revealed that one of the YIG crystals had bifurcated into two different layers. The dynamics of nuclear super-radiance was explored. This phenomenon includes the radiative speedup exhibited by a collective state of particles, and, in striking concurrence, resonance frequency shifts. A speedup of a factor of 4 in the total decay rate and a beat frequency shift of 13 natural resonance linewidths were observed. Nuclear resonance scattering was also found to be a useful way of performing angular interferometry experiments, and it was used to observe the phase shift of a rotated quantum state. On the whole, nuclear dynamical diffraction theory has superbly explained many of the fascinating features of resonant magnetic dipole radiation scattered by a lattice of nuclei.