  In order to model the phase-coherent scattering of electrons in
two-dimensional electron gases in the presence of Rashba spin-orbit coupling, a
general partial-wave expansion is developed for scattering from a cylindrically
symmetric potential. The theory is applied to possible electron flow imaging
experiments using a moveable scanning probe microscope tip. In such
experiments, it is demonstrated theoretically that the Rashba spin-orbit
coupling can give rise to spin interference effects, even for unpolarized
electrons at nonzero temperature and no magnetic field.
