Filled skutterudite antimonides: Validation of the electron-crystal phonon-glass approach to new thermoelectric materials

摘要

After a brief review of the transport and thermoelectric properties of filled skutterudite antimonides, the authors present resonant ultrasound, specific heat, and inelastic neutron scattering results that establish the existence of two low-energy vibrational modes in the filled skutterudite LaFe(sub 3)CoSb(sub 12). It is likely that at least one of these modes represents the localized, incoherent vibrations of the La ion in an oversized atomic (open quotes)cage(close quotes). These results support the usefulness of weakly bound, (open quotes)rattling(close quotes) ions for the improvement of thermoelectric performance.