Inversion of molecular scattering data

Abstract

Solutions of the inverse problem of scattering are reviewed. Quantum mechanical, semiclassical, and classical methods in the high-energy limit are discussed for both the step from the cross section to the phase shifts or the deflection function and the step from these functions to the potential. The emphasis is on the practical applicability of such procedures in molecular physics rather than on the question of existence and uniqueness. The procedures which had been applied to the determination of spherically symmetric, interatomic potentials by the inversion of actual scattering data are critically surveyed and illustrated by approprite examples.