Antimony vibrations in skutterudites probed by 121Sb nuclear inelastic scattering

Abstract

The antimony specific lattice dynamic properties in the unfilled and filled EuFe4Sb12 skutterudites have been determined by nuclear inelastic scattering at the 121Sb nuclear resonance energy of 37.1298(2) keV with a 4.5 meV high-resolution backscattering sapphire monochromator. The Sb partial vibrational density of states, DOS, shows a maximum centered at 17 and 16 meV in CoSb3 and EuFe4Sb12, respectively. The difference in the Sb DOS of CoSb3 and EuFe4Sb12 reveals that upon filling a transfer of 10% of the vibrational states towards lower energy occurs. Further, a likely indication of the coupling between the guest and the host lattice in rattler systems is observed, a coupling that is required to reduce the lattice thermal conductivity.