Spin-polarized electron transmission through chiral halocamphor molecules

Authors

• J. M. Dreiling, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
• F. W. Lewis, Northumbria UniversityFollow
• Timothy J. Gay, University of Nebraska - LincolnFollow

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

2018

Citation

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

doi:10.1088/1361-6455/aae1bd

Comments

Original content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 licence.

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.