A novel approach to the synthesis of electrostatic lenses with minimized aberrations

A novel approach to the synthesis of axially symmetric electrostatic lenses with minimum aberrations is presented. The method uses computer optimization to determine the electrode potentials of a multielectrode lens. The method can be used for designing lenses for many different applications. As a preliminary result, an example of a lens with very small spherical aberration is given. The synthesis of electrostatic lenses can be accomplished automatically with an experimental setup controlled by an online computer