Jahn-Teller-effect formation of the non-magnetic ground state for the d8   system
  It is shown that the d8 electron system occurring in the Ni2+ ion can have the non-magnetic ground state in the atomic scale formed by the Jahn-Teller effect. The tetragonal/trigonal off-cubic lattice distortion for the octahedral site causes the splitting of the triplet 3A2g into a singlet-doublet structure with the non-magnetic singlet lying lower provided the intra-atomic spin-orbit coupling is taken into account. 
Z.Ropka, R.J. Radwanski