Temperature dependent high velocity resolution Mössbauer spectroscopic study of iron nickel phosphide microcrystals (rhabdites) extracted from Sikhote-Alin iron meteorite

▶ Iron nickel phosphide microcrystals (rhabdites) extracted from Sikhote-Alin iron meteorite fragment were studied using Mössbauer spectroscopy with a high velocity resolution at various temperatures. Low temperature rhabdite spectra were fitted using a model with six magnetic sextets two pairs of which were related to crystallographically non-equivalent sites M1, M2 and M3 occupied by Fe and Ni atoms in different ways. On the basis of relative areas of spectral components and results of rhabdite chemical analysis the average numbers of Fe and Ni atoms occupied the M1, M2 and M3 sites, respectively, were evaluated.