Growth and properties of multilayered skutterudite thin films

This paper reports the structure and thermoelectric properties of multilayered skutterudite thin films. In particular, the two skutterudite phases used were CoSb/sub 3/ and IrSb/sub 3/. The multilayers were constructed using pulsed laser deposition (PLD) from skutterudite targets containing excess antimony. The films are polycrystalline with small grains exhibiting columnar growth penetrating through the layers. The property measurements, while yielding absolute numbers that are inferior to bulk values, show a possible enhancement (relative to single alloy films) of the thermoelectric power factor for multilayers with a period near 25 nm. Thermal conductivity data for the multilayers show that they are higher than a single alloy film. However, the values are below that of bulk skutterudites and single films of CoSb/sub 3/ and IrSb/sub 3/.