First-principles study of filled and unfilled antimony skutterudites

Using a first-principles approach based on density-functional theory, the electronic, dielectric and dynamical properties of the skutterudites CoSb3 and TlFeCo3Sb12 are studied. In particular, the electron localization tensor, static and dynamic effective charges, static and optical dielectric constants and phonon dispersion curves are computed. The Born effective charges are found to be significantly larger than the static charges of the ions. Moreover, the static dielectric constant of TlFeCo3Sb12 is found to be significantly larger than that of CoSb3. The analysis of the phonon dispersion curves reveals a low-energy mode due to coupled vibrations of Tl and Sb. This mode is at the origin of a well-defined peak in the phonon density of states of TlFeCo3Sb12 and its mode effective charge is related to the increase of the dielectric constant in TlFeCo3Sb12. Our results are compared to recent experiments performed on CoSb3 and TlFeCo3Sb12, and differences between the lattice dynamics of TlFeCo3Sb12 and other filled skutterudites are highlighted.