Two states of Fe atoms with different parameters of the electric and magnetic hyperfine structure have been found to exist in submicrometre-grained iron. One of these states coincides with that of Fe atoms in conventional iron. The second state is regarded as a state corresponding to a grain boundary phase the parameters of which are related to the physical width of the intercrystalline boundaries.
1 December 1991 in Scripta Metallurgica et Materialia