Determination of the He-He, Ne-Ne, Ar-Ar, and H${}_2$ interaction potential by wave function imaging

We report on a direct method to measure the internuclear potential energy curve of diatomic systems. A COLTRIMS reaction microscope was used to measure the squares of the vibrational wave functions of H${}_2$, He${}_2$, Ne${}_2$, and Ar${}_2$. The Schr"odinger equation relates the curvature of the wave function to the potential V® and therefore offers a simple but elegant way to extract the shape of the potential.