Abstract: Applying the atomic characteristic boundary model, the boundary contours of inert atoms were evaluated in uniform strength electric field, whose strength was 5.292×10-5 - 5.292×10-3 a.u.. The calculated results by an ab initio method showed that the boundary of an atom in a uniform electric field was close to elliptical, and the variation of atomic boundary contour was increased with the increase of the electric field strength. In the same electric field, the larger the atomic number was, the bigger the variation of atomic boundary contour was. Further, it was shown that the mean variation rates of the atomic radial sizes of these atoms in the electric field of unit strength had a good linear relationship with the experimental values of atomic polarizability.

Key words: Electric field, Atomic boundary contour, Variation rates of atomic radial size, Atomic polarizability