Assessing the role of the filler atoms on the thermal conductivity of La-filled skutterudites

There has been substantial effort in investigating the thermal transport in filled skutterudites over the past decade in order to optimize their thermoelectric properties. This effort has resulted in the accumulation of a large amount of experimental data in the literature. We have tapped into this wealth of data and have begun an assessment of the role of the filler atoms, and dopants, on point defect and resonance scattering. We investigate the lattice thermal conductivity of lanthanum-filled skutterudites at different lanthanum concentrations using the Debye model and incorporating boundary, point defect, Umklapp and resonance scattering mechanisms.