Dependence of Properties and Exchange Coupling Constants on the Charge in the Mn 2 O n and Fe 2 O n Series

The geometrical structure and properties of the neutral and singly charged Mn O and Fe O clusters ( q = 0, ±1) are computed using density functional theory with the generalized gradient approximation in the range 1 ≤ n ≤ 7. The geometrical structures and spin multiplicities of the corresponding species in all six series are similar except for a few exceptions. Antiferromagnetic coupling of total spin magnetic moments of the metal atoms in the lowest total energy states is observed for the majority of species in all six series when n = 1-5; correspondingly, the computed magnetic exchange coupling constants are mostly negative. The states of Mn O and Fe O are nonmagnetic or weakly ferromagnetic when n > 5 except for Mn O where the ground state is antiferromagnetic. The computed adiabatic electron affinities and ionization energies of the neutral species in both series are quite close to one another and increase as n increases. However, the binding energies of a single oxygen atom and of an O dimer decrease as n increases and the Mn O and Fe O cations are barely stable with respect to the O abstraction. The most stable and least stable species at a given n are the anions and the cations, respectively. The electric dipole polarizability per atom decreases sharply when n moves from 1 to 4 and then remains nearly constant for larger n values in the anion series, whereas it is close to the asymptotic value already at n = 2 in the neutral series.