Linear and nonlinear response functions of the Morse oscillator: Classical divergence and the uncertainty principle

Abstract

The algebraic structure of the quantum Morse oscillator is explored to formulate the coherent state, the phase-space representations of the annihilation and creation operators, and their classical limits. The formulation allows us to calculate the linear and nonlinear quantum response functions for microcanonical Morse systems and to demonstrate the linear divergence in the corresponding classical response function. On the basis of the uncertainty principle, the classical divergence is removed by phase-space averaging around the microcanonical energy surface. For the Morse oscillator, the classical response function averaged over quantized phase space agrees exactly with the quantum response function for a given eigenstate. Thus, phase-space averaging and quantization provide a useful way to establish the classical-quantum correspondence of anharmonic systems.