Electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy applied to the characterization of actinide properties

NUCL 120

Lynn A. Boatner, boatnerla@ornl.gov, ORNL Center for Radiation Detection Materials and Systems, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Materials Science and Technology Division, Oak Ridge, TN 37831
Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy is an extremely useful and versatile technique for investigating the properties of actinide ions. This characterization method is generally applied to the case of actinide ions that are introduced as dilute impurities in crystalline hosts. One advantage of this method is that it can be applied using relatively small amounts of an actinide isotope due to the sensitivity of the EPR technique, and elements out to 253Es have been investigated. EPR spectroscopy can be used to investigate both the electronic and (some) nuclear properties of the actinides. In the case of studying actinide electronic properties in a crystalline environment, EPR spectroscopy is amenable to delineating the electronic effects (i.e., ”intermediate-coupling”) that specifically arise as a result of the large spin–orbit-coupling interaction characteristic of the actinides. EPR methods can also be applied to determinations of actinide nuclear spins and estimates of the nuclear magnetic moments.