EPR spectra at 94.5 GHz (3 mm) and 249.9 GHz (1 mm) have been measured for the dichloro-, dibromo-, and
diiodobis(triphenylphosphine oxide)manganese(II) complexes. These compounds have a distorted tetrahedral
geometry, and the highest possible symmetry obtainable is C
2
v
. Because the spectra are taken in the high-field
limit, they are simple and much easier to interpret than at lower magnetic fields. Accurate values of the zero-field
splitting parameters, D and η (E/D), are determined by least-squares fitting and homotopy using matrix
diagonalization. The compounds have g-values near 2 and large values of D and η. Across the series, D increases
from 0.165 to 0.906 cm-1, while η decreases slightly from 0.273 to 0.246.