It is proposed to study the scattering of spin-polarized electrons from atomic targets, both in the ground state and in metastable excited states. In this way one can probe the spin-dependent properties of collision systems. One manifestation is the fine structure effect, which results in asymmetric scattering of polarized electrons by unpolarized atoms, even when relativistic effects in the collision are negligible. It is planned to investigated the asymmetry in a series of noble gases from Ne to Xe, allowing an assessment of the relativistic versus fine structure effects as target Z increases.
