Electron optic dichroism and electron optic activity

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Abstract
The properties of an electron beam passing through an assembly of optically active molecules are considered. If the sample is a pure optical isomer, the spin polarisation of the emerging beam is expected to show phenomena which are analogous to the effects of circular dichroism and optical activity: (i) the attenuation of the electron beam depends on the longitudinal spin polarisation of the incident beam; (ii) an initially unpolarised beam emerges with longitudinal spin polarisation and (iii) in the passage through the sample the transverse polarisation of the incident beam undergoes a rotation about the beam axis. These electron optic effects, like the optical ones, rest on the lack of inverse symmetry of the target molecules. Comments are made on the possibility of detecting the described effects.

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