Review paper: ''Brute-force'' nuclear orientation: A survey of accomplishments and problems to date

The technique of ''brute-force'' or direct low-temperature nuclear orientation has become practicable since about 1970 with the development of cryostats capable of producing the required combination of fields and temperatures. This is reflected in the increasing number of experiments reported in recent years. We summarize here the potential applications and some of the initial difficulties of the technique. New data for the systems 95TaTa, 110Ag/sup m/Ag and CoMo are presented, and the results of a magnetic resonance experiment on 95Nb nuclei oriented by the direct method are compared with data from a conventional resonance experiment in Fe host