PARAMETRIZATION OF COMPLEX ABSORBING POTENTIALS FOR TIME-DEPENDENT QUANTUM DYNAMICS

Five different forms of complex absorbing potentials are examined and compared. Such potentials are needed to absorb wavepackets near the edges of grids in time-dependent quantum dynamical calculations. The extent to which the different potentials transmit or reflect an incident wavepacket is quantified, and optimal potential parameters to minimize both the reflection and transmission for each type of potential are derived. A rigorously derived scaling procedure, which permits the derivation of optimal potential parameters for use with any chosen mass or kinetic energy from those optimized for different conditions, is described. Tables are also presented which permit the immediate selection of the parameters for an absorbing potential of a particular form so as to allow a preselected (very small) degree of transmitted plus reflected probability to be attained. It is always desirable to devote a minimal region to the absorbing potential, while at the same time effectively absorbing all of the wavepacket and neither transmitting nor reflecting any of it. The tables presented here enable the user to easily select the potential parameters he will require to attain these goals.