Alloying and Doping Control in the Layered Metal Phosphide Thermoelectric CaCuP

We recently identified CaCuP as a potential low cost, low density thermoelectric material, achieving zT = 0.5 at 792 K. Its performance is limited by a large lattice thermal conductivity, κ_L, and by intrinsically large p-type doping levels. In this paper, we address the thermal and electronic tunability of CaCuP. Isovalent alloying with As is possible over the full solid solution range in the CaCuP_1–xAs_x series. This leads to a reduction in κ_L due to mass fluctuations but also to a detrimental increase in p-type doping due to increasing Cu vacancies, which prevents zT improvement. Phase boundary mapping, exploiting small deviations from 1:1:1 stoichiometry, was used to explore doping tunability, finding increasing p-type doping to be much easier than decreasing the doping level. Calculation of the Lorenz number within the single parabolic band approximation leads to an unrealistic low κ_L for highly doped samples consistent with the multiband behavior in these materials. Overall, CaCuP and slightly Cu-enriched CaCu_1.02P yield the best performance, with zT approaching 0.6 at 873 K.