Tuning magnetism of MnO by doping with 2p elements

We show that the antiferromagnetic coupling between Mn atoms in MnO can be tuned to a ferromagnetic one by doping it with a small concentration of 2p elements like boron, carbon and nitrogen. Our ab initio density functional calculations in the Hubbard U framework show that the coupling between Mn atoms turns ferromagnetic for 3 at% B doping. B is found to be the most effective one in stabilizing ferromagnetism. We discuss the role of 2p states of the dopant atoms to explain the trend of ferromagnetism in MnO.