  The electronic structures of R2Fe3Si5 (where R = Lu, Tm, Er, Tb, Yb)
intermetallics have been calculated from first principles in local-spin density
(LSDA) and LSDA + U approaches. The majority of rare-earth iron silicides,
except for the heavy-fermion Yb-based compound, exhibit almost equal values of
density of states at the Fermi level (EF) as well as very similar Fermi surface
topology. The electronic structure around EF in the 235-type Fe-based compounds
is completely dominated by the Fe 3d states. Thus the different superconducting
properties of some members of the R2Fe3Si5 family are rather related to a
presence of local magnetic moments of R-atoms than to electronic-structure
features at EF.
