Chiral asymmetry in elastic scattering of vortex electrons by molecules
Phys. Rev. A 113, 022801 – Published 2 February, 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/gzzh-7r5m
Abstract
We analyze the elastic scattering of vortex electrons by chiral molecules. In this process, the incident vortex electron acts as a chiral probe, analogous to the incident circularly polarized photon in the photoeffect. This suggests that chiral asymmetry in the scattering observables similar to photoelectron circular dichroism (PECD) is expected. Indeed, we show that the angular distribution of electrons scattered by a single target molecule averaged over molecular orientations depends on the handedness of the incident electron and the molecule and remains unchanged if both handednesses are switched simultaneously, in analogy with PECD. We also show that although this chiral asymmetry disappears for a homogeneous gas target, it survives for scattering by any finite cloud of randomly oriented molecules. Thus the asymmetry is observable, at least in principle, under realistic experimental conditions. The predictions of the theory are illustrated by calculations for a chiral glyceraldehyde molecule described within the molecular zero-range potential model.
