The iron-57 Mössbauer spectra of R3Fe5O12, where R is Y, Eu and Dy,
have been measured between 4.2 and 550 K. The substantial quadrupole splittings
observed in the paramagnetic spectra confirm that the local symmetry at both the
tetrahedral and octahedral iron(III) sites is not cubic. The low temperature
Mössbauer spectra of Dy3Fe5O12 clearly confirm the spin
reorientation between 10 and 15 K and the 4.2 and 10 K spectra are consistent
with the known orientation of the magnetization at 14 K in the cubic
Ia3̄d unit cell. The Mössbauer spectra of R3Fe5O12, where
R is Y, Eu and Dy, obtained between 45 and 295 K, reveal four different
tetrahedral iron(III) Mössbauer spectral components, four components which are
inconsistent with a magnetization oriented along the [111] axis of a cubic
Ia3̄d unit cell. In contrast, these four components are consistent with a
crystal symmetry which is reduced from cubic to rhombohedral R3̄. The
temperature dependence of the hyperfine fields in Dy3Fe5O12 indicates
a small biquadratic exchange contribution to the magnetic exchange. The
temperature dependence of the isomer shifts in Dy3Fe5O12 gives
Mössbauer lattice temperatures of 405 and 505 K for the 16a and 24d sites,
respectively, values which are in excellent agreement with the Debye temperature
measured for Y3Fe5O12.