Local structural order in disordered systems investigated by Mossbauer spectrometry

The modelling of local structural order is necessarily required to understand the physical properties of disordered crystalline and amorphous systems, and materials containing grains with nanometre dimensions. Because of its atomic scale sensitivity, Fe-57 Mossbauer spectrometry brings relevant information related to the local order in the case of iron-containing materials. We report here selected examples illustrating the ability of this local probe technique to study disordered systems, but also its limitations. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.