Virtual Mössbauer Spectrometer in the PXI Modular System

Abstract

A virtual instrumentation programming method has been used for building a computer-based Mössbauer spectrometer. Data acquisition is realized via two PXI or PCI commercially available modules, the digital oscilloscope NI 5102 and the function generator NI 5401 (National Instruments), which are supported by relevant software drivers. Virtual Mössbauer spectrometer is implemented by the graphical programming language LabVIEW 7 Express. The RTSI bus is used for a synchronization of the registration of gamma ray photons with a relative velocity of the motion between the radioactive source and the sample. The amplitude selection of the impulses from the detector output is carried out by an assistance of the Waveform Peak Detection.vi function. The sampling rate of the detector output signal and frequency of the velocity signal determine the number of registration channels of the measured Mössbauer spectrum.