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of the well.

Since the zero of potential energy is arbitrary, the equation for the Morse potential can be rewritten any number of ways by adding or subtracting a constant value. When it is used to model the atom-surface interaction, the energy zero can be redefined so that the Morse potential becomes

:which is usually written as

:

where is now the coordinate perpendicular to the surface. This form approaches zero at infinite and equals at its minimum, i.e. . It clearly

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