Polarized Electron-Atom Collisions

盖伊教授和他的同事将进行三项涉及原子和分子极化电子散射的研究。(1)自旋极化电子从高能量长寿命原子激发态的超弹性散射。在超弹性散射中，原子的一些内能在碰撞时转化为电子的动能。(2)螺旋度或“手性”对电子散射的影响。许多自然产生的分子都是单手性，而不是另一种，也不是两种——这项研究是为了寻找这种“自然”偏好背后的基本物理原因。(3)对氦激发和随后的荧光进行系统研究，以确定该过程是否可以作为电子偏振法的高精度标准。

Professor Gay and his coworkers will undertake three investigations involving the scattering of polarized electrons by Atoms and molecules. (1) Superelastic scattering of the spin polarized electrons from energy-rich, long-lived atomic excited states. In superelastic scattering some of the internal energy of the atom transfers to the kinetic energy of the electron at the time of collision. (2) The effect of helicity or "handedness" in electron scattering. Many naturally occurring molecules have one handedness but not the other but not both-- this study is a search for the fundamental physical reason behind this "natural" preference. (3) A systematic study of helium excitation and subsequent fluorescence to determine if this process can be made a highly accurate standard for electron polarimetry.