+Tersoff proposed an empirical interatomic potential for covalent systems.
+The Tersoff potential explicitly incorporates the dependence of bond order on local envirenments, permitting an improved description of covalent materials.
+Tersoff applied the potential to silicon \cite{tersoff_silicon1,tersoff_silicon2,tersoff_silicon3}, carbon \cite{tersoff_carbon} and also to multicomponent systems like $SiC$ \cite{tersoff_multi}.
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+The basic idea is that, in real systems, the bond order depends upon the local environment.
+An atom with many neighbours forms weaker bonds than an atom with few neighbours.
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