Pressure effect on structural, electronic and thermodynamic investigations of europium filled skutterudite EuFe<inf>4</inf>Sb<inf>12</inf>: LDA and LSDA approximations

Numerical calculations based on the full potential muffin-tin orbitals method (FP-LMTO) within the local density approximation (LDA) and the local spin-density approximation (LSDA) to investigate the structural, electronic and thermodynamic properties of filled skutterudite EuFe4Sb12 are presented. The electronic band structure and density of states profiles prove that this material is a conductor. The present investigation is also extended to the elastic constants, such as the bulk modulus B, anisotropy factor A, shear modulus G, young's modulus E, Poisson's ratio ν, and the B/G ratio with pressure in the range of 0–40 GPa. The sound velocities and Debye temperatures are also predicted from the above constants. The variations of the primitive cell volume, expansion coefficient α, bulk modulus B, heat capacity (Cp and Cv), Debye temperature θD, Helmholtz free energy A, Gibbs free energy G, entropy S, and internal energy U with pressure and temperature in the range 0–3000 K are calculated successfully.