Born-Huggins-Meyer potential

The Born-Huggins-Meyer potential (although looking at the authors/publications perhaps it would be more precisely known as the Born-Meyer-Huggins potential) is given by

${\mathrm{\Phi }}_{12}(r)=A\exp [B(\sigma -r)]-\frac{C}{r^6}-\frac{D}{r^8}$

where

• $r:=|{\mathbf{r}}_1-{\mathbf{r}}_2|$
• ${\mathrm{\Phi }}_{12}(r)$ is the intermolecular pair potential between two particles or sites
• $\sigma$ is the diameter (length), i.e. the value of $r$ at which ${\mathrm{\Phi }}_{12}(r)=0$

The first term is an exponential repulsion, followed by dipole-dipole and dipole-quadrupole dispersion terms. This potential is often augmented with a Coulombic interaction.

This potential is often used to study alkali halides.