Mass spectrometry experiments show an exceptionally weak bonding between Si 7 Mn + and rare gas atoms as compared to other exohedrally transition metal (TM) doped silicon clusters and other Si n Mn + (n = 5-10) sizes. The Si 7 Mn + cluster does not form Ar complexes and the observed fraction of Xe complexes is low. The interaction of two cluster series, Si n Mn + (n = 6-10) and Si 7 TM + (TM = Cr, Mn, Cu, and Zn), with Ar and Xe is investigated by density functional theory calculations. The cluster-rare gas binding is for all clusters, except Si 7 Mn + and Si 7 Zn + , predominantly driven by short-range interaction between the TM dopant and the rare gas atoms. A high s-character electron density on the metal atoms in Si 7 Mn + and Si 7 Zn + shields the polarization toward the rare gas atoms and thereby hinders formation of short-range complexes.Overall, both Ar and Xe complexes are similar except that the larger polarizability of Xe leads to larger binding energies.Atomic clusters emerge as interesting materials in the size regime between single atoms and nanoparticles, whose properties are strongly influenced by confinement effects. Understanding of their size and composition dependent structures and properties is primordial for further usage. The interactions between clusters and rare gas (RG) atoms are of crucial importance in many experimental techniques. For example, RG complexes are used for action spectroscopy in cluster science due to the inherent weak interaction, 1 Ar titration and tagging have been used to obtain isomer-specific photoelectron spectra for 2D and 3D gold clusters 2,3 and isomer selective infrared (IR) spectra of niobium clusters. 4 In most experimental studies, it has been assumed that the RG atoms do not significantly influence the intrinsic structure and properties of the bare clusters, and are therefore called messenger or spectator atoms. A negligible influence of the RG atoms is inferred from their low adsorption energies and from insignificant differences in measured IR spectra of elemental clusters and their Ar-complexes, such as for V n + , 5 Nb n + , 6 Ta n + (n = 6-20), 7 Si n + (n = 6-21), 8 as well as for binary Si n V + and Si n Cu + (n = 6-11) clusters. 9 Nevertheless, such an assumption is not always applicable. Stronger cluster-RG interactions, which cause discernible changes in the IR spectra of the bare clusters, were observed for some Co n + , Au n , and doped Au n Y clusters. 10-12 Moreover, the RG tagging of some oxide clusters changes the energetic ordering of the isomers, in which case a low-energetic structural isomer, and thus not the ground state structure of the bare cluster, is probed in the experiment. 13 A simple electrostatic picture was put forward to explain the stronger influence of the RG atom, analogous to models often used to interpret the interaction of RG atoms with metal surfaces 14 or metal complexes. 15 Much effort has been devoted to reveal the nature of interaction between RG and metal surfaces 12,16 or metal-atom complexes. 14,17 There are a...