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 ${1s}_3\left[{\mathrm{}\left(2p\right)\mathrm{}}^5{3s:}^1{P}_0\right]$ 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 ${1s}_3$ state has been also determined to be $2.8(\pm 0.1)\times {10}^{-39}\hspace{0.5em}{\mathrm{Fm}}^2.$