Ab initio calculations of structural, elastic, electronic and thermodynamic properties of the cerium filled skutterudite CeRu₄P₁₂ under the effect of pressure

The paper presents an investigation on crystalline, elastic and electronic structure in addition to the thermodynamic properties for a CeRu₄P₁₂ filled skutterudite device by using the full-potential linear muffin-tin orbital (FP-LMTO) method within the generalized gradient approximations (GGA) in the frame of density functional theory (DFT). For this purpose, the structural properties, such as the equilibrium lattice parameter, bulk modulus and pressure derivatives of the bulk modulus, were computed. By using the total energy variation as a function of strain we have determined the independent elastic constants and their pressure dependence. Additionally, the effect of pressure P and temperature T on the lattice parameters, bulk modulus, thermal expansion coefficient, Debye temperature and the heat capacity for CeRu₄P₁₂ compound were investigated taking into consideration the quasi-harmonic Debye model.