Electron-optic dichroism and electron-optic activity

The chiral effects, electron-optic activity and electron-optic dichroism, are discussed for the forward scattering of polarized electrons by zero-spin molecules. Four coupled first-order differential equations are derived for the change in beam intensity and polarization as an electron beam passes through an ensemble of molecules; the relation between the solution of these equations and the chiral effects is fully discussed. General results are derived for molecules with the same fixed orientation in space and also for randomly oriented molecules. The four coupled equations are solved numerically for a model achiral oriented molecule showing that the effects can be quite appreciable.