Coordination driven magnetic to nonmagnetic transition in manganese doped silicon clusters

The interaction of a single manganese impurity with silicon is analyzed in a combined experimental and theoretical study of the electronic, magnetic, and structural properties of manganese doped silicon clusters. The structural transition from exohedral to endohedral doping coincides with 3d electron delocalization and a quenching of high spin states. For all geometric structures investigated, we find a correlation of the magnetic moment with the manganese coordination number and nearest neighbor distance. This observation can be generalized to manganese point defects in bulk silicon, whose magnetic moments fall within the observed magnetic to nonmagnetic transition, and therefore react very sensitively to changes in the local geometry. The results indicate that high spin states in manganese doped silicon could be stabilized by an appropriate lattice expansio