Structure and electronic properties of neutral and cationic pure and Ni-doped Ge clusters containing 1-20 Ge atoms are calculated within the framework of linear combination of atomic orbitals density functional theory. It is found that in clusters containing more than 8 Ge atoms the Ni atom is absorbed endohedrally in the Ge cage. Relative stability of Ni-doped clusters at different sizes is studied by calculating their binding energy, embedding energy of a Ni atom in a Ge cluster, highest-occupied molecular orbital to lowest-unoccupied molecular orbital gap, and the second-order energy difference. Clusters having 20 valence electrons turn out to be relatively more stable in both the neutral and the cationic series. There is, infact, a sharp drop in IP as the valence electron count increases from 20 to 21, in agreement with predictions of shell models. Relevance of these results to the designing of Ge-based superatoms is discussed.
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