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

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

where

• $r:=|\mathbf {r} _{1}-\mathbf {r} _{2}|$
• $\Phi _{12}(r)$ is the intermolecular pair potential between two particles or sites
• $\sigma$ is the diameter (length), i.e. the value of $r$ at which $\Phi _{12}(r)=0$

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.