= Spin-flip scattering
Spin-flip scattering is a collision or scattering event that changes a particle's <spin> projection along a specified <quantization axis>. For <electrons>, coupling to another magnetic moment or coupling of motion to <spin> through <spin-orbit coupling> can transfer angular momentum between the electron spin and other degrees of freedom.
Repeated events can relax a nonequilibrium <spin polarization>, making spin-flip scattering one mechanism of <spin relaxation>. The axis and state basis must be stated: in a spin-orbit-coupled material, the propagating <energy eigenstates> need not be pure up or down states along one fixed axis. Conversely, decay of transverse coherence need not imply flips; different precession phases can cancel the ensemble's transverse signal while individual spin populations remain unchanged.
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