Experimental and theoretical studies of plasma resonance and the electronic structure of binary skutterudites

摘要

We determine the plasmon energies of the skutterudites CoP_3, CoAs_3 and CoSb_3 by electron energy loss spectroscopy, and compare with calculated values from the Drude model and density functional theory (DFT). For these compounds, whose doped versions have potential applications as thermoelectric materials, there is a relatively large discrepancy between experiment and theory based on the Drude model as well as the DFT-calculations. We also study the transitions from occupied to unoccupied states near the Fermi-level that show up at energies lower than the plasmon energies. The features observed are in general agreement with the DFT-calculations.