Determination of Interatomic Potentials of He_{2}, Ne_{2}, Ar_{2}, and H_{2} by Wave Function Imaging

Phys Rev Lett. 2018 Aug 24;121(8):083002. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.121.083002.

Abstract

We report on a direct method to measure the interatomic potential energy curve of diatomic systems. A cold target recoil ion momentum spectroscopy reaction microscope was used to measure the squares of the vibrational wave functions of H_{2}, He_{2}, Ne_{2}, and Ar_{2}. The Schrödinger equation relates the curvature of the wave function to the potential V(R) and therefore offers a simple but elegant way to extract the shape of the potential.