A. Surzhykov,
V. A. Yerokhin,
T. Jahrsetz,
P. Amaro,
T. Stöhlker,
and S. Fritzsche
Polarization correlations in the elastic Rayleigh scattering of photons by hydrogenlike ions
Phys. Rev. A, 88 :062515 (December 2013)
Polarization correlations in the elastic Rayleigh scattering of photons by hydrogenlike ions
Phys. Rev. A, 88 :062515 (December 2013)
Abstract:
The (elastic) Rayleigh scattering of hard x rays by hydrogenlike ions has been investigated within the framework of second-order perturbation theory and Dirac's relativistic equation. The focus of this study was, in particular, on two questions: (i) How is the polarization of scattered photons affected if the incident light is itself (linearly) polarized, and (ii) how do the nondipole contributions to the electron-photon interaction and the relativistic contraction of the wave functions influence such a polarization transfer? Detailed calculations were performed for Ne9+, Xe53+, and U91+ targets and for photon energies up to ten times the 1s ionization threshold of the ions. From the comparison of these fully relativistic computations with the (nonrelativistic) dipole approximation we conclude that relativistic and higher-multipole effects often lead to a significant or even complete depolarization for heavy targets and at high photon energies.