Imaging of an atomic beam with electrostatic lenses

The imaging of a neutral atomic beam by electrostatic force has been demonstrated. An ultracold neon atomic beam in the 1s₃[(2p)⁵3s:¹P₀] state illuminated a transparent object, passed through a set of three electrostatic lenses, and formed the image on a microchannel plate detector with the magnification of unity. Each lens consisted of two parallel cylinders that functioned as a concave lens along one axis and as a convex lens along the other axis. The atomic polarizability of neon in the 1s₃ state has been also determined to be 2.8(+/-0.1)×10^-39 Fm².