Spin-dependent electron scattering from oriented molecules

Elastic forward scattering of electrons from oriented (chiral and non-chiral) molecules is discussed. The main emphasis is on spin-dependent interactions. A general theory is derived in which the production of transverse and longitudinal spin polarisation is related to the structure of the target system and the geometry of the experiments. The different role played by spin-flip and non-flip processes is analysed. A dynamical theory is developed in which the collision is treated as a molecular event, and numerical results for the spin polarisations are presented for scattering from a chiral model molecule.