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Polarization transfer in hard x-ray Rayleigh scattering for non-coplanar geometry

Wilko Middents1,2,3,*, Alexandre Gumberidze1, Thomas Krings4, Anton Kononov1, Philip Pfäfflein1,2,3,†, Norbert Schell5, Uwe Spillmann1, Sophia Strnat6,7,‡, Andrey Surzhykov6,7 et al.

Marco Vockert2,3, Andrey Volotka1,2,§, Günter Weber1,2, Vladimir A Yerokhin8, and Thomas Stöhlker1,2,3

  • *Contact author: wilko.middents@uni-jena.de
  • †Present address: European XFEL, Holzkoppel 4, D-22869, Schenefeld, Germany.
  • ‡Present address: Tampere University, Photonics Laboratory, Physics Unit, Tampere, FI-33014, Finland.
  • §Present address: School of Physics and Engineering, ITMO University, 197101 St. Petersburg, Russia.
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Phys. Rev. A 113, 013525 – Published 21 January, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/sfnd-hv3k

Abstract

We present an experimental study of the Rayleigh scattering of highly linearly polarized hard x rays. For this study, photons produced by a synchrotron source with an energy of 175keV are scattered by a thin gold foil target. While the linear polarization in terms of degree of polarization and its orientation of the incident photon beam are well known, the outgoing scattered photons are analyzed by means of Compton polarimetry. For this, a polarimeter detector is positioned at different observation angles with respect to the incident photon beam. For the first time the polarization of elastically scattered photons outside of the polarization plane of the incident radiation is investigated, enabling novel access to a so-far untested component of the polarization transfer. The experimental findings are compared to predictions of two theoretical models. It is found that, when leaving the polarization plane of the incident photon beam, a strong deviation from the form factor approximation is evident, while calculations of the Rayleigh scattering in the S-matrix approach agree with the experimental results. Furthermore, this study is a foundation for future experiments dedicated to a polarization-resolved analysis of Delbrück scattering.

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Phys. Rev. A 113, 013525– Published 21 January, 2026
  • Received 10 October 2025
  • Accepted 17 December 2025
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