Skutterudites are promising materials for future thermoelectric applications. Whereas the skutterudite ${\text{CoSb}}_3$ is intensively studied, very few investigations for ${\text{FeSb}}_3$ are performed due to its metastable character and the comparably low decomposition temperature. In this work, single-phase ${\text{FeSb}}_3$ thin films were prepared by codeposition of Fe and Sb using molecular beam epitaxy at room temperature followed by postannealing. The transport properties of a Fe-Sb composition series were determined and reveal high power factors $S^2\sigma$ up to $14\mu \mathrm{W}/{\mathrm{K}}^2\mathrm{cm}$. Furthermore, the structural parameters, the electronic structure, and the transport parameters were calculated by density functional theory, giving excellent agreement with the experimental data.

• Received 11 December 2014
• Revised 15 January 2015

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.91.085410