Optimization of electrostatic lens systems using genetic algorithms

To optimize the design of a system of electrostatic lenses can be quite challenging. Especially when many lens electrodes are involved, the number of design parameters, such as electrode thickness, radius, gaps between electrodes and voltage, increases rapidly. Therefore, it would be really helpful when optimization routines can be used. There have been some attempts to develop optimization programs, such as Szilagy et al. [1] and Adriaanse et al. [2], but they used to be not very accurate. In the meantime, computers have become much more powerful, making it attractive to revisit the problem. In this work we apply a Genetic Algorithm [3] for the optimization, and MATLAB was chosen for coding.