An algorithm was recently presented to utilize emerging time-dependent probability density data to extract molecular potential-energy surfaces. This paper builds on the previous work and seeks to enhance the capabilities of the extraction algorithm: An improved method of removing the generally ill-posed nature of the inverse problem is introduced via an extended Tikhonov regularization and methods for choosing the optimal regularization parameters are discussed. Several ways to incorporate multiple data sets are investigated, including the means to optimally combine data from many experiments exploring different portions of the potential. In addition, results are presented on the stability of the inversion procedure, including the optimal combination scheme, under the influence of data noise. The method is applied to the simulated inversion of a double-well system to illustrate the various points.

• Received 19 September 2001

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.65.032514