Impurity-defect interaction in metals

In the past two decades new methods employing nuclear techniques have demonstrated that they can substantially contribute to our knowledge about defects in metals since they give precise information about the microscopic surrounding of the nuclear probe and thus about defects in its immediate neighbourhood. In addition to the Moessbauer effect the observation of perturbed angular correlations (PAC) of γ-rays emitted in the decay of radioactive nuclei has become the nuclear technique used most frequently in defect studies. The author concentrates on this method and after a brief description of the basic principles demonstrates its potential by choosing some instructive examples. 81 refs.; 18 figs.; 3 tabs