Polarization Studies on Rayleigh Scattering of Hard X RaysONLINE ONLY

The elastic scattering of photons by atoms is one of the fundamental processes in the interaction of radiation with matter. Over the past few years, increasing attention has been paid to the study of the properties of the scattered photons. In particular, the linear polarization of the outgoing radiation was measured in a recent experiment at the PETRA III synchrotron facility at DESY in Hamburg [1]. This experiment demonstrated that by analyzing the polarization of the scattered x rays, information can be obtained not only about the atomic structure of the target atoms, but also about the polarization of the incident synchrotron radiation.

In this talk, the polarization properties of elastically scattered x rays by atoms are pointed out. It is illustrated how the polarization of the incident light can be determined only with the polarization of scattered photons, without any need for the theoretical scattering amplitudes [2]. Moreover, it is explored how linearly polarized light can lead to a certain degree of circular polarization when the photons are elastically scattered.

References

[1] K. H. Blumenhagen, S. Fritzsche, T Gassner, A. Gumberidze, R. Märtin, N. Schell, D. Seipt, U. Spillmann, A. Surzhykov, S. Trotsenko, G. Weber, V. A. Yerokhin, and T. Stöhlker, New J. Phys. 18, 103034 (2016).
[2] S. Strnat, V. A. Yerokhin, A. V. Volotka, G. Weber, S. Fritzsche, R. A. Müller, A. Surzhykov, Phys. Rev. A 2021, 103, 012801