This paper concerns angular momentum-dependent phenomena in excited gas-phase atoms using incident photons or electrons in scattering experiments. A brief overview indicates the main capabilities of experimental techniques and the information which can be deduced about atomic structure and dynamics from conservation of momenta with measurement of polarization and detection of the number of emerging electrons, photons and ions. Maximum information may be obtained when the incident particles and the targets are state-selected both before and after scattering. The fundamental scattering amplitudes and their relative phases, and consequently derived quantities such as the parameters describing the electron charge cloud of the atomic target, have enabled significant advances of understanding of collision mechanisms.

The angular momentum-dependent scattering probabilities change when, for example, the spin-orbit interaction for the target electrons becomes large compared with the Coulomb electron-electron interactions and also when electron exchange and the relative orientation of the electron spins change. Several examples are discussed to indicate significant principles and recent advances. Major contributions to this field from the technology associated with electron spin production and detection time, as well as time-coincidence detection, are discussed. New results from the authors' laboratory are presented.