Polarization correlations in the elastic Rayleigh scattering of photons by hydrogenlike ions

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 Ne${}^{9+}$, Xe${}^{53+}$, and U${}^{91+}$ 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.