Novelty and variety of the characteristics found in the filled skutterudites

✍ Scribed by H. Sato; H. Sugawara; D. Kikuchi; S. Sanada; K. Tanaka; H. Aoki; K. Kuwahara; Y. Aoki; M. Kohgi

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2006
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 355 KB
• Volume: 378-380
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0921-4526
• DOI: 10.1016/j.physb.2006.01.024

✦ Synopsis

A general survey of the variety of phenomena exhibited by the filled skutterudite compounds is presented from the view points of electrical properties and electronic structure, putting emphasis on the Pr-and Sm-based ones. Until now, Pr-based ones, such as heavy Fermion superconductivity in PrOs 4 Sb 12 , metal-insulator transition in PrRu 4 P 12 and field-induced heavy Fermion state above antiferroquadrupolar ordered state in PrFe 4 P 12 , have been most intensively investigated. Quite a few attractive features have been found also in Ce-and Sm-based skutterudites; such as recently found novel heavy Fermion state robust against magnetic fields in SmOs 4 Sb 12 . We discuss the novelty and variety of such attractive features in correlation with the unique crystal structure of the filled skutterudite.