Determination of Interatomic Potentials of He$_2$ , Ne$_2$ , Ar$_2$ , and H$_2$ by Wave Function Imaging

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 He$_2$ , Ne$_2$ , Ar$_2$ , and H$_2$. 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