Nuclear forward and inelastic spectroscopy on 125Te and Sb2125 Te3

We report on the observation of nuclear forward and nuclear inelastic scattering of synchrotron radiation by 125 Te and the application of both spectroscopic methods to tellurium compounds by using a high-resolution backscattering sapphire monochromator in combination with fast detection electronics. The lifetime of the nuclear resonance and the energy of the transition were determined to be 2.131(12) ns and 35493.12(30) eV, respectively. As applications, the nuclear inelastic spectrum in Sb2Te3 and the nuclear forward scattering by Te metal were measured. These measurements open the field of nuclear resonance spectroscopy on tellurium compounds such as thermoelectric and superconducting materials. open access Copyright c EPLA, 2010