Department of Physics and Astronomy: Publications and Other Research

 

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

2018

Citation

J. Phys. B: At. Mol. Opt. Phys. 51 (2018) 21LT01 (6pp)

Comments

© 2018 IOP Publishing Ltd

Open access

https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6455/aae1bd

Abstract

We have measured electron-circularly-dichroic asymmetries when longitudinally-polarized (chiral) electrons are scattered quasi-elastically by chiral halocamphor molecules: 3-bromocamphor (C10H15BrO), 3-iodocamphor (C10H15IO), and 10-iodocamphor. The proposed dynamic origins of these asymmetries are considered in terms of three classical models related to Mott scattering, target electron helicity density, and spin-other-orbit interactions. The asymmetries observed for 3-bromocamphor and 3-iodocamphor scale roughly as Z2, where Z is the nuclear charge of the heaviest atom in the target molecule, but the scaling is violated by 10- iodocamphor, which has a smaller asymmetry than that for 3-iodocamphor. This is in contrast to the asymmetries in the collision channel associated with dissociative electron attachment, in which 10-iodocamphor has a much larger asymmetry. All of the available electron-circularlydichroic data taken to date are considered in an effort to systematically address the dynamical cause of the observed chiral asymmetries.

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