It is known that phonon scattering by point defects is effective for reducing the lattice thermal conductivity due to the mass and strain fluctuations between the host and guest atoms. Therefore a high concentration of defects having big mass and strain fluctuations is desired. Based on this strategy, this work focuses on the effect of Ag/Cu substitution on reducing the lattice thermal conductivity in CuGaTe2. It is seen that the lattice thermal conductivity can be significantly reduced by a factor of 4 when >30% Cu is substituted by isovalent Ag, which further leads to a great enhancement in the thermoelectric figure of merit, zT in the entire temperature range. The peak zT of ∼1.0 at 750 K is obtained in the samples with an optimal carrier concentration, which is one of the highest reported so far for this material in a single phase at the same temperature. This work demonstrates CuGaTe2 as a promising thermoelectric material and the point defect scattering as an effective strategy for enhancing its zT.
