ELECTRONIC MATERIALS Selective synthesis of higher manganese silicides: a new Mn 17 Si 30 phase, its electronic, transport, and optical properties in comparison with Mn 4 Si 7 Ivan A. Tarasov 1, * , Maxim A. Visotin 1,2 , Tatiana V. Kuznetzova 3,4 , Aleksandr S. Aleksandrovsky 1,5 , Leonid A. Solovyov 6 , Aleksandr A. Kuzubov 2 , Kristina M. Nikolaeva 2 , Aleksandr S. Fedorov 1,2 , Anton S. Tarasov 1,2 , Felix N. Tomilin 1,2 , Michail N. Volochaev 1,7 , Ivan A. Yakovlev 1 , Tatiana E. Smolyarova 1,2 , Aleksandr A. Ivanenko 1 , Victoria I. Pryahina 8 , Alexander A. Esin 8 , Yuri M. Yarmoshenko 3 , Vladimir Ya Shur 8 , Sergey N. Varnakov 1 , and Sergey G. Ovchinnikov 1,2 1 Federal Research Center KSC SB RAS, Kirensky Institute of Physics, Krasnoyarsk, Russia 660036 2 Siberian Federal University, Krasnoyarsk, Russia 660041 3 M.N. Miheev Institute of Metal Physics of the UB RAS, Yekaterinburg, Russia 620108 4 Institute of Physics and Technology, Ural Federal University, Yekaterinburg, Russia 620002 5 Siberian Federal University, Institute of Nanotechnology, Quantum Chemistry and Spectroscopy, Krasnoyarsk, Russia 660041 6 Institute of Chemistry and Chemical Technology, Federal Research Center KSC SB RAS, Krasnoyarsk, Russia 660036 7 Siberian State Aerospace University, Krasnoyarsk, Russia 660014 8 Institute of Natural Sciences, Ural Federal University, Yekaterinburg, Russia 620000 Received: 4 December 2017 Accepted: 1 February 2018 Published online: 20 February 2018 © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2018 ABSTRACT The electronic structure, transport and optical properties of thin films of Mn 4 Si 7 and Mn 17 Si 30 higher manganese silicides (HMS) with the Nowotny “chimney- ladder” crystal structure are investigated using different experimental tech- niques and density functional theory calculations. Formation of new Mn 17 Si 30 compound through selective solid-state reaction synthesis proposed and its crystal structure is reported for the first time, the latter belonging to I-42d. Absorption measurements show that both materials demonstrate direct inter- band transitions around 0.9 eV, while the lowest indirect transitions are observed close to 0.4 eV. According to ab initio calculations, ideally structured Mn 17 Si 30 is a degenerate n-type semiconductor; however, the Hall measure- ments on the both investigated materials reveal their p-type conductivity and degenerate nature. Such a shift of the Fermi level is attributed to introduction of silicon vacancies in accordance with our DFT calculations and optical charac- teristics in low photon energy range (0.076–0.4 eV). The Hall mobility for Mn 17 Si 30 thin film was found to be 25 cm 2 /V s at T = 77 K, being the highest among all HMS known before. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy discloses a presence of plasmon satellites in the Mn 4 Si 7 and Mn 17 Si 30 valence band spectra. Address correspondence to E-mail: tia@iph.krasn.ru https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-018-2105-y J Mater Sci (2018) 53:7571–7594 Electronic materials