Electron optical activity

The passage of a beam of transversely polarised electrons through a sample of chiral (oriented and non-oriented) molecules is considered. The behaviour of the electronic spins, in particular the rotation of the initial polarisation vector, is discussed for various cases: (i) passage through an optically active refractive medium, (ii) forward scattering from oriented molecules and (iii) scattering from chiral randomly oriented molecules. Numerical results are presented for forward scattering from a chiral model molecule and the influence of the molecular orientation relative to the direction of the initial polarisation vector is discussed.