MORSE OSCILLATOR The Morse oscillator is a model for a particle in a one-dimensional anharmonic potential energy surface with a dissociative limit at infinite displacement.1 It is commonly used for describing the spectroscopy of diatomic molecules and anharmonic vibrational dynamics, and most of its properties can be expressed through analytical expressions.2 The Morse potential is 2 V ( x) De 1 e x (1) where x (r r0 ) . De sets the depth of the energy minimum at r = r0 relative to the dissociation limit as r → ∞, and α sets the curvature of the potential. If we expand V in powers of x about x=0, V ( x) 12 x 2 16 g x3 241 hx 4 we find that the harmonic, cubic, and quartic 2 De 2 , expansion coefficients are g 6 De 3 , and h 14 De 4 . The Morse oscillator Hamiltonian for a diatomic molecule of reduced mass mR bound by this potential is H p2 V ( x) 2 mR and has the eigenvalues 2 En 0 n 12 xe n 12 n 0,1, 2,3... (2) Here 0 2 De 2 mR is the fundamental frequency and xe 0 / 4 De is the anharmonic constant. The frequency ω0 is equivalent to equating the harmonic force constant ( 2V / x 2 ) x 0 with mR02 . The anharmonic constant xe is commonly seen in the spectroscopy expression for the anharmonic vibrational energy levels G (v) e (v 12 ) e xe (v 12 ) 2 e ye (v 12 )3 (3) 1 Morse, P. M., Diatomic Molecules According to the Wave Mechanics. II. Vibrational Levels. Physical Review 1929, 34 (1), 57-64. 2 Lefebvre-Brion, H. l. n.; Field, R. W., The spectra and dynamics of diatomic molecules. 2nd ed.; Academic Press: Boston, 2004. From eq. (1.1) the ground state (or zero-point) energy is E0 12 0 1 12 xe (4) So the dissociation energy for the Morse potential is given by D0 De E0 . The transition energies are En Em 0 n m 1 xe n m 12 (5) The proper harmonic expressions are obtained from the above for the Morse oscillator by setting De or xe 0 . The wavefunctions for the Morse oscillator can also be expressed analytically in terms of associated Laguerre polynomials Lbn ( z ) :3 (6) n N ne z /2 z b/2Lbn ( z ) where N n [ b n !/ (k n)]1/2 z k exp[ q ] b k 2n 1 k 4 De / 0 These expressions and those for matrix elements in q, q2, e‒αq, and qe‒αq have been given by Vasan and Cross.4 3 Gallas, J. A. C., Some matrix elements for Morse oscillators. Physical Review A 1980, 21 (6), 1829-1834. Vasan, V. S.; Cross, R. J., Matrix elements for Morse oscillators. The Journal of Chemical Physics 1983, 78 (6), 3869-3871. 4