以物理学家Philip M. Morse的名字命名的Morse势是一种对于双原子分子间势能的简易解析模型。 一方面，对Morse势求解Schrödinger方程具有解析解，方便分析问题；另一方面，由于它隐含地包括了键断裂这种现象，对于分子振动的微细结构的具有良好的近似。Morse势包含有谐振子模型所缺乏的特性，那就是非成键态。相对量子谐振子模型，Morse势更加真实，因为它能够描述非谐效应，倍频，以及组合频率。倍频发生在n +/- 2或更大的跃迁的时候，而组合频率则来源于添加或除去两个或更多个模型。

The Morse potential, named after physicist Philip M. Morse, is a convenient interatomic interaction model for the potential energy of a diatomic molecule. It is a better approximation for the vibrational structure of the molecule than the QHO (quantum harmonic oscillator) because it explicitly includes the effects of bond breaking, such as the existence of unbound states. It also accounts for the anharmonicity of real bonds and the non-zero transition probability for overtone and combination bands. The Morse potential can also be used to model other interactions such as the interaction between an atom and a surface. Due to its simplicity (only three fitting parameters), it is not used in modern spectroscopy. However, its mathematical form inspired the MLR (Morse/Long-range) potential, which is the most popular potential energy function used for fitting spectroscopic data.