Breakdown of phonon glass paradigm in La- and Ce-filled Fe4Sb12 skutterudites

M. M. Koza (1) , M. R. Johnson (1) , R. Viennois (2) , L. Girard (3) , Hannu Mutka (1) , Didier Ravot (4)

1 ILL - Institut Laue-Langevin
2 UNIGE - Université de Genève = University of Geneva
3 LPMC - LPMC,
4 ICGM ICMMM - Institut Charles Gerhardt Montpellier - Institut de Chimie Moléculaire et des Matériaux de Montpellier

The low thermal conductivity in filled skutterudites has been ascribed to rattling atoms inducing a phonon glass. Experimental evidence now shows that the phonon glass description is incorrect, and provides essential insight for the development of microscopic models aimed at describing the thermoelectric properties of these materials.

Mots clés: phonon glass; skutterudites; thermoelectricity

Domaines: Science des matériaux [cond-mat.mtrl-sci]

M. M. Koza, M. R. Johnson, R. Viennois, L. Girard, Hannu Mutka, et al.. Breakdown of phonon glass paradigm in La- and Ce-filled Fe4Sb12 skutterudites. Nature Materials, 2008, 7, pp.805. ⟨10.1038/nmat2260⟩. ⟨hal-00339545⟩