Heterovalent Substitution to Enrich Electrical Conductivity in Cu(2)CdSn(1-x)Ga(x)Se(4) Series for High Thermoelectric Performances

Serials of Ga doping on Sn sites as heterovalent substitution in Cu(2)CdSnSe(4) are prepared by the melting method and the spark plasma sintering (SPS) technique to form Cu(2)CdSn(1-x)Ga(x)Se(4) (x = 0, 0.025, 0.05, 0.075, 0.01, and 0.125). Massive atomic vacancies are found at x = 0.10 by the heterovalent substitution, which contributes significantly to the increase of electrical conductivity and the decrease of lattice thermal conductivity. The electrical conductivity is increased by about ten times at 300 K after Ga doping. Moreover, the seebeck coefficient only decreases slightly from 310 to 226 μV/K at 723 K, and a significant increase of the power factor is obtained. As a result, a maxium value of 0.27 for the figure of merit (ZT) is obtained at x = 0.10 and at 723 K. Through an ab initio study of the Ga doping effect, we find that the Fermi level of Cu(2)CdSnSe(4) is shifted downward to the valence band, thus improving the hole concentration and enhancing the electrical conductivity at low doping levels. Our experimental and theoretical studies show that a moderate Ga doping on Sn sites is an effective method to improve the thermoelectric performance of Cu(2)CdSnSe(4).