Scattering of polarized electrons from anisotropic chiral ensembles

A theory is developed to describe chiral effects in collision between arbitrarily polarized electrons and cylindrically symmetric oriented samples of chiral molecules. The chiral effects, generated in such collisions, depend not only on the structure of the molecule but also on their orientation. By deriving a set of symmetry rules it is shown how `structural' and `orientational' contributions can be disentangled. Of crucial importance is the time-reversibility of the collision. The information obtained from the experiments is conveniently expressed in terms of Mueller matrix elements similar to optics. As a case study numerical calculations have been performed for elastic collisions with H 2 S 2 . The full set of Mueller matrix elements is calculated for various orientations of the molecules. The numerical results confirm and illustrate the general theory.