Molecular rotations studied by nuclear resonant scattering Original Research Article

Nuclear resonant scattering techniques can be used to study both fast and slow dynamics of Mössbauer nuclei. The influence of rotational dynamics in molecular systems is studied applying three types of scattering techniques: (1) Synchrotron radiation perturbed angular correlation (SRPAC) yields direct and quantitative evidence for rotational dynamics in the μs–ns regime. (2) Nuclear inelastic scattering (NIS) monitors the relative influence of intra- and intermolecular forces via the vibrational density of states, which can be influenced by the onset of molecular rotation. (3) In nuclear forward scattering (NFS), information both on rotational and on translational dynamics can be extracted. Results using SRPAC and NIS on a plastic crystal and NFS on ferrocene confined in a molecular sieve are presented.