Geometrical effects in the spin polarization of molecular photoelectrons

Abstract

We show that when photoelectrons are ejected from molecules by circularly polarized light, they are in general spin polarized as a result of geometrical factors governing the ionization process which occurs when there is angular momentum exchange between the ion and the photoelectron. Because photoelectron spin polarization is the only means of determining the difference between the amplitudes of photoelectron partial waves with j= l±1/2 it is important that these geometrical factors are understood for a proper interpretation of experiments.