Influence of electron-phonon interaction on the lattice thermal conductivity of Co1-xNixSb3 -: art. no. 094115

We have investigated the effect of electron-phonon scattering in a series of n-type nickel-doped CoSb3 skutterudite materials. Samples were polycrystalline of the form Co1-xNixSb3 with x = 0, 0.001, 0.003, 0.005, 0.0075, and 0.01. The lattice thermal conductivity decreases dramatically with increasing Ni doping for x less than or equal to0.003. For higher Ni concentration the reduction of the lattice thermal conductivity saturates. Our theoretical analysis indicates that this reduction of the lattice thermal conductivity cannot be explained solely by point-defect scattering of the phonons. Rather, we can fit the lattice thermal conductivity of Ni-doped CoSb3 by introducing an electron-phonon scattering mechanism, and this demonstrates that the electron-phonon interaction can play an important role in the reduction of the beat conduction in n-type skutterudites.