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}.
+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.