This is a list of

potential energy In physics, potential energy is the energy held by an object because of its position relative to other objects, stresses within itself, its electric charge, or other factors. Common types of potential energy include the gravitational potentia ...

functions that are frequently used in quantum mechanics and have any meaning.

One-dimensional potentials

* Rectangular potential barrier * Delta potential (aka "contact potential") * Double delta potential *

Step potential Step(s) or STEP may refer to: Common meanings * Steps, making a staircase * Walking * Dance move * Military step, or march ** Marching Arts Films and television * ''Steps'' (TV series), Hong Kong * ''Step'' (film), US, 2017 Literature * '' ...

Periodic potential In quantum mechanics, the particle in a one-dimensional lattice is a problem that occurs in the model of a periodic crystal lattice. The potential is caused by ions in the periodic structure of the crystal creating an electromagnetic field so elec ...

* Barrier potential * Gaussian potential * Eckart potential

Wells

* Quantum well * Potential well * Finite potential well * Infinite potential well *

Double-well potential The so-called double-well potential is one of a number of Quartic function, quartic potentials of considerable interest in quantum mechanics, in quantum field theory and elsewhere for the exploration of various physical phenomena or mathematical pro ...

* Semicircular potential well * Circular potential well *

Spherical potential well In the quantum mechanics description of a particle in spherical coordinates, a spherically symmetric potential, is a potential that depends only on the distance between the particle and a defined centre point. One example of a spherical potenti ...

Triangular potential well A triangle is a polygon with three edges and three vertices. It is one of the basic shapes in geometry. A triangle with vertices ''A'', ''B'', and ''C'' is denoted \triangle ABC. In Euclidean geometry, any three points, when non-collinear ...

Interatomic potentials

* Interatomic potential * Bond order potential * EAM potential *

Coulomb potential The electric potential (also called the ''electric field potential'', potential drop, the electrostatic potential) is defined as the amount of work energy needed to move a unit of electric charge from a reference point to the specific point in ...

* Buckingham potential *

Lennard-Jones potential The Lennard-Jones potential (also termed the LJ potential or 12-6 potential) is an intermolecular pair potential. Out of all the intermolecular potentials, the Lennard-Jones potential is probably the one that has been the most extensively studied ...

* Morse potential * Morse/Long-range potential * Rosen–Morse potential * Trigonometric Rosen–Morse potential *

Stockmayer potential The Stockmayer potential is a mathematical model for representing the interactions between pairs of atoms or molecules. It is defined as a Lennard-Jones potential with a point electric dipole moment The electric dipole moment is a measure of the ...

Pöschl–Teller potential In mathematical physics, a Pöschl–Teller potential, named after the physicists Herta Pöschl (credited as G. Pöschl) and Edward Teller, is a special class of potentials for which the one-dimensional Schrödinger equation can be solved in ter ...

Axilrod–Teller potential The Axilrod–Teller potential in molecular physics, is a three-body potential Potential generally refers to a currently unrealized ability. The term is used in a wide variety of fields, from physics to the social sciences to indicate things that ...

* Mie potential

Oscillators

* Harmonic potential (

harmonic oscillator In classical mechanics, a harmonic oscillator is a system that, when displaced from its Mechanical equilibrium, equilibrium position, experiences a restoring force ''F'' Proportionality (mathematics), proportional to the displacement ''x'': \v ...

) * Morse potential ( morse oscillator) * Morse/Long-range potential ( Morse/Long-range oscillator) * Kratzer potential ( Kratzer oscillator)

Quantum Field theory

* Yukawa potential *

Coleman–Weinberg potential The Coleman–Weinberg model represents quantum electrodynamics of a scalar field in four-dimensions. The Lagrangian (field theory), Lagrangian for the model is :L = -\frac (F_)^2 + , D_ \phi, ^2 - m^2 , \phi, ^2 - \frac , \phi, ^4 where the scal ...

Uehling potential In quantum electrodynamics, the Uehling potential describes the interaction potential between two electric charges which, in addition to the classical Coulomb potential, contains an extra term responsible for the electric polarization of the vac ...

* Woods–Saxon potential

Miscellaneous

Quantum potential The quantum potential or quantum potentiality is a central concept of the de Broglie–Bohm formulation of quantum mechanics, introduced by David Bohm in 1952. Initially presented under the name ''quantum-mechanical potential'', subsequently ''qu ...