Nuclear Isomers: Applications to Condensed Matter Physics

Solids in nature exhibit a plethora of interesting phenomenon in many domains – structural, electronic, magnetic etc. Much of exciting physical processes are governed by many body electron-electron correlation. Investigations of solid state properties are most commonly examined through macroscopic experimental techniques like X-ray diffraction, transport and magnetization measurements. These techniques reveal the gross features with no details on dynamics. Microscopic investigations are often important for complete understanding of static and dynamic solid state properties. Hyperfine interaction of atomic nuclei serve as powerful microscope for studying solid state phenomenon at short length and time scales. Aided by heavy-ion accelerators, high spin isomers can be excited in many nuclei and these have been effectively exploited over the last decades to study various aspects of solid state phenomenon. The information obtained from these studies, often challenge conventional understanding of the physical processes. In this talk I shall try to give an overview on the application of high spin nuclear isomers to a variety of problems in condensed matter physics, with illustrative examples from experiments carried out at the Pelletron accelerator at TIFR