-where $r$ denotes the distance between the two atoms.
-
-The attractive tail for large separations $(\sim r^{-6})$ is essentially due to correlations between electron clouds surrounding the atoms. The attractive part is also known as {\em van der Waals} or {\em London} interaction.
-It can be derived classically by considering how two charged spheres induce dipol-dipol interactions into each other, or by considering the interaction between two oscillators in a quantum mechanical way.
-
-The repulsive term $(\sim r^{-12})$ captures the non-bonded overlap of the electron clouds.
-It does not have a true physical motivation, other than the exponent being larger than $6$ to get a steep rising repulsive potential wall at short distances.
-Chosing $12$ as the exponent of the repulsive term it is just the square of the attractive term which makes the potential evaluable in a very efficient way.
-
-The constants $\epsilon$ and $\sigma$ are usually determined by fitting to experimental data.
-$\epsilon$ accounts to the depth of the potential well, where $\sigma$ is regarded as the radius of the particle, also known as the van der Waals radius.
+As discussed above, $b_{ij}$ represents a measure of the bond order, monotonously decreasing with the coordination of atoms $i$ and $j$.
+It is of the form:
+\begin{eqnarray}
+b_{ij} & = & \chi_{ij} (1 + \beta_i^{n_i} \zeta^{n_i}_{ij})^{-1/2n_i} \\
+\zeta_{ij} & = & \sum_{k \ne i,j} f_C (r_{ik}) \omega_{ik} g(\theta_{ijk}) \\
+g(\theta_{ijk}) & = & 1 + c_i^2/d_i^2 - c_i^2/[d_i^2 + (h_i - \cos \theta_{ijk})^2]
+\end{eqnarray}
+where $\theta_{ijk}$ is the bond angle between bonds $ij$ and $ik$.
+This is illustrated in Figure \ref{img:tersoff_angle}.
+\begin{figure}[t]
+\begin{center}
+\includegraphics[width=8cm]{tersoff_angle.eps}
+\end{center}
+\caption{Angle between bonds of atoms $i,j$ and $i,k$.}
+\label{img:tersoff_angle}
+\end{figure}
+The angular dependence does not give a fixed minimum angle between bonds since the expression is embedded inside the bond order term.
+The relation to the above discussed bond order potential becomes obvious if $\chi=1, \beta=1, n=1, \omega=1$ and $c=0$.
+Parameters with a single subscript correspond to the parameters of the elemental system \cite{tersoff_si3,tersoff_c} while the mixed parameters are obtained by interpolation from the elemental parameters by the arithmetic or geometric mean.
+The elemental parameters were obtained by fit with respect to the cohesive energies of real and hypothetical bulk structures and the bulk modulus and bond length of the diamond structure.
+New parameters for the mixed system are $\chi$, which is used to finetune the strength of heteropolar bonds, and $\omega$, which is set to one for the C-Si interaction but is available as a feature to permit the application of the potential to more drastically different types of atoms in the future.
+
+The force acting on atom $i$ is given by the derivative of the potential energy.
+For a three body potential ($V_{ij} \neq V{ji}$) the derivation is of the form
+\begin{equation}
+\nabla_{{\bf r}_i} E = \frac{1}{2} \big[ \sum_j ( \nabla_{{\bf r}_i} V_{ij} + \nabla_{{\bf r}_i} V_{ji} ) + \sum_k \sum_j \nabla_{{\bf r}_i} V_{jk} \big] \textrm{ .}
+\end{equation}
+The force is then given by
+\begin{equation}
+F^i = - \nabla_{{\bf r}_i} E \textrm{ .}
+\end{equation}
+Details of the Tersoff potential derivative are presented in appendix \ref{app:d_tersoff}.
+
+\subsubsection{Improved analytical bond order potential}
+
+Although the Tersoff potential is one of the most widely used potentials there are some shortcomings.
+Describing the Si-Si interaction Tersoff was unable to find a single parameter set to describe well both, bulk and surface properties.
+Due to this and since the first approach labeled T1 \cite{tersoff_si1} turned out to be unstable \cite{dodson87}, two further parametrizations exist, T2 \cite{tersoff_si2} and T3 \cite{tersoff_si3}.
+While T2 describes well surface properties, T3 yields improved elastic constants and should be used for describing bulk properties.
+However, T3, which is used in the Si/C potential, suffers from an underestimation of the dimer binding energy.
+Similar behavior is found for the C-C interaction.
+
+For this reason, Erhart and Albe provide a reparametrization of the Tersoff potential based on three independently fitted parameter sets for the Si-Si, C-C and Si-C interaction \cite{albe_sic_pot}.
+The functional form is similar to the one proposed by Tersoff.
+Differences in the energy functional and the force evaluation routine are pointed out in appendix \ref{app:d_tersoff}.
+Concerning Si the elastic properties of the diamond phase as well as the structure and energetics of the dimer are reproduced very well.
+The new parameter set for the C-C interaction yields improved dimer properties while at the same time delivers a description of the bulk phase similar to the Tersoff potential.
+The potential succeeds in the description of the low as well as high coordinated structures.
+The description of elastic properties of SiC is improved with respect to the potentials available in literature.
+Defect properties are only fairly reproduced but the description is comparable to previously published potentials.
+It is claimed that the potential enables modeling of widely different configurations and transitions among these and has recently been used to simulate the inert gas condensation of Si-C nanoparticles \cite{erhart04}.
+Therefore the Erhart/Albe (EA) potential is considered the superior analytical bond order potential to study the SiC precipitation and associated processes in Si.
+
+\subsection{Verlet integration}
+\label{subsection:integrate_algo}