Learn Mössbauer spectroscopy

Short guides for anyone new to the technique. Most have interactive plots, so you can see how a spectrum changes as you move a slider.

For a detailed guide to measuring soils and sediments, see our review, Current practices for analyzing soils and sediments via Mössbauer spectroscopy (Thompson and others, 2025, Journal of Plant Nutrition and Soil Science).

  1. Guide 1

    A first look at Mössbauer spectroscopy

    What the technique measures, how a spectrum is recorded and what it can tell you.

  2. Guide 2

    Preparing a sample

    What makes a good sample, how much you need, and three ways to prepare samples for measurement.

  3. Guide 3

    Hyperfine parameters

    The isomer shift, quadrupole splitting, hyperfine field and more, with sliders to see what each one does.

  4. Guide 4

    Temperature: from doublet to sextet

    Why the same sample can give a doublet at room temperature and a sextet when cooled.

  5. Guide 5

    Line shapes: Lorentzian or Voigt?

    Why real lines are often broader than a simple model expects, and how Voigt-based fitting helps.

  6. Guide 6

    Telling iron oxides apart

    Typical spectra of hematite, goethite, magnetite and other common iron oxides, and how to separate them.

  7. Test yourself

    Quick quiz

    Ten questions to check what you have learned from the guides.