2022 Impact factor 2.7
Hadrons and Nuclei
Eur. Phys. J. A 15, 275-280 (2002)
DOI: 10.1140/epja/i2001-10267-y

Applications of radioactive ion beams to solid-state physics

M. Deicher1 and the ISOLDE Collaboration2

1  Fachbereich Physik, Universität Konstanz, D-78457 Konstanz, Germany
2  CERN/PPE, CH-1211 Geneva 23, Switzerland

manfred.deicher@uni-konstanz.de

(Received: 21 March 2002 / Published online: 31 October 2002)

Abstract
Radioactive atoms have been used in solid-state physics and in material science for many decades. Besides their classical application as tracer for diffusion studies, nuclear techniques such as Mößbauer spectroscopy, perturbed angular correlation, $\beta$-NMR, and emission channeling have used nuclear properties (via hyperfine interactions or emitted $\alpha$- or $\beta$-particles) to gain microscopical information on the structural and dynamical properties of solids. During the last decade, the availability of many different radioactive isotopes as a clean ion beam at ISOL facilities like ISOLDE/CERN has triggered a new era involving methods sensitive for the optical and electronic properties of solids, especially in the field of semiconductor physics. Extremely sensitive spectroscopic techniques like deep-level transient spectroscopy (DLTS), photoluminescence (PL), and Hall effect gain a new quality by using radioactive isotopes: Due to their decay the chemical origin of an observed electronic and optical behavior of a specific defect or dopant can be unambiguously identified. This review will briefly introduce the experimental techniques used and browse through the ongoing experiments in solid-state physics using radioactive ion beams demonstrating the wide variety of problems under study involving bulk properties, surfaces and interfaces in many different systems like semiconductors, superconductors, magnetic systems, metals and ceramics.

PACS
61.72.-y - Defects and impurities in crystals; microstructure.
71.55.-i - Impurity and defect levels.
76.80.+y - Mössbauer effect; other $\gamma$-ray spectroscopy.

© Società Italiana di Fisica, Springer-Verlag 2002