Direct Inversion of Rotationally Inelastic Cross Sections: Determination of the Anisotropic Ne-D2Potential

The anisotropic interaction potential for Ne-${\mathrm{D}}_2$ is determined by a direct inversion method from the measured rotationally inelastic $j=0\mathrm{}\to j=2\mathrm{}$ and elastic $j=0\mathrm{}\to j=0\mathrm{}$ differential cross sections. The values obtained yield the repulsive part of the interaction in the range 2.43 to 2.77 Å. This is the first inversion of inelastic scattering data. The method is restricted to weak inelastic systems. It is computationally simple, and involves only errors of ∼ 5% in the inverted potential.