# Beyond the Harmonic Oscillator; Highlights of Selected Studies of Vibrational Potential Energy Functions

## TL;DR

This paper explores alternative potential energy functions beyond the harmonic oscillator to better understand molecular structures and behaviors.

## Contribution

The study demonstrates accurate fitting of spectroscopic data using simple potential functions for various molecular phenomena.

## Key findings

- Simple potential functions accurately model molecular inversion and ring puckering.
- The approach reveals insights into the anomeric effect and pseudorotation.
- Findings include analysis of π-type hydrogen bonding in electronic states.

## Abstract

Although the harmonic oscillator model has found wide use in physics and chemistry, there are more interesting potential energy functions (PEFs) which can tell us a great deal about molecular structure and energetics. In the present work, we show that for selected systems simple one- and two-dimensional potential functions can be used to very accurately fit detailed spectroscopic data and provide extensive additional information. Results for molecular inversion, ring puckering, the anomeric effect, pseudorotation, triplet-state puckering, internal rotation, and π-type hydrogen bonding in ground and excited electronic states are presented.