Enhanced atomic ordering leads to high thermoelectric performance in AgSbTe₂

High thermoelectric performance is generally achieved through either electronic structure modulations or phonon scattering enhancements, which often counteract each other. A leap in performance requires innovative strategies that simultaneously optimize electronic and phonon transports. We demonstrate high thermoelectric performance with a near room-temperature figure of merit, ZT ~ 1.5, and a maximum ZT ~ 2.6 at 573 kelvin, by optimizing atomic disorder in cadmium-doped polycrystalline silver antimony telluride (AgSbTe₂). Cadmium doping in AgSbTe₂ enhances cationic ordering, which simultaneously improves electronic properties by tuning disorder-induced localization of electronic states and reduces lattice thermal conductivity through spontaneous formation of nanoscale (~2 to 4 nanometers) superstructures and coupling of soft vibrations localized within ~1 nanometer around cadmium sites with local strain modulation. The strategy is applicable to most other thermoelectric materials that exhibit inherent atomic disorder.