Investigation of the Effects of Atomic Number and Constitution on Chirally-Sensitive Electron-Induced Molecular Breakup

We present the results of our search for asymmetric interactions between longitudinally spin-polarized electrons and different chiral halocamphor molecules. We define the asymmetry as $A =$ [($I_{\uparrow } - I_{\downarrow })$/($I_{\uparrow } +I_{\downarrow })$]$_{L} $- [($I_{\uparrow } - I_{\downarrow })$/($I_{\uparrow } + I_{\downarrow })$]$_{R}$, where $I_{\uparrow }$ ($I_{\downarrow })$ is the current measured for spin-up (spin-down) electrons and the ``$L$'' and ``$R$'' subscripts correspond to the left- and right-handed chirality of the molecules [1]. Two electron-molecule interaction channels were studied: electron transmission (related to the total scattering cross section) and dissociative electron attachment (DEA). Three halocamphor molecules were investigated: 3-bromocamphor (C$_{\mathrm{10}}$H$_{\mathrm{15}}$BrO), 3-iodocamphor (C$_{\mathrm{10}}$H$_{\mathrm{15}}$IO), and 10-iodocamphor. While the transmission asymmetry data do not show a strong molecular dependence, the DEA asymmetries collected for bromocamphor and iodocamphor are qualitatively different, suggesting that the atomic number of the heaviest atom in the molecule plays a crucial role in the asymmetric interactions. The DEA asymmetry data for 3- and 10-iodocamphor have the same qualitative behavior, but the 10-iodocamphor asymmetry is about twice as large at the lowest energies investigated, so the location of the heavy atom in the camphor molecule also affects the asymmetries. [1] J.M. Dreiling and T.J. Gay, Phys. Rev. Lett. \textbf{113}, 118103 (2014).