  The important role of scalar field in cosmology was noticed by a number of
authors. Due to the fact that the scalar field possesses zero spin, it was
basically considered in isotropic cosmological models. If considered in an
anisotropic model, the linear scalar field does not lead to isotropization of
expansion process. One needs to introduce scalar field with nonlinear potential
for the isotropization process to take place. In this paper the general form of
scalar field potentials leading to the asymptotic isotropization in case of
Bianchi type-I cosmological model, and inflationary regime in case of isotropic
space-time is obtained. In doing so we solved both direct and inverse problem,
where by direct problem we mean to find metric functions and scalar field for
the given potential, whereas, the inverse problem means to find the potential
and scalar field for the given metric function. The scalar field potentials
leading to the inflation and isotropization were found both for harmonic and
proper synchronic time.
