Superconductivity and magnetism in skutterudites / Сверхпроводимость и магнетизм в скуттерудитах

Skutterudites have been the subject of keen scientific studies for the past 40 years or so. The interest was precipitated by the discovery of Prof. Wolfgang Jeitschko and his colleagues (1977), revealing that an open structure of skutterudites typified by two large voids in the unit cell can be filled with foreign species (ions), giving rise to what are called filled skutterudites. Throughout the years, it has been shown that the filling dramatically modifies the physical properties of the original binary form of skutterudites and gives rise to a plethora of fascinating electronic, magnetic, and superconducting characteristics.
The presence of a weakly bonded filler in the oversized void of the crystalline lattice of skutterudites very strongly degrades the ability of the structure to propagate acoustic phonons and, coupled with the outstanding electronic properties (electrical conductivity and the Seebeck coefficient), it resulted in exceptional thermoelectric performance of filled skutterudites that rivals the properties of the best thermoelectric materials. This is particularly so in the temperature range of 500 K–800 K, the regime where industrial processes generate plentiful waste heat that can be harvested and converted to useful electrical energy. The topic of thermoelectric energy conversion using skutterudites has been extensively covered in my book Thermoelectric Skutterudites (2021). <...>