Tailoring local structural distortions and the associated ferroelectric instability in SnTe via Ge alloying resulted in ultralow lattice thermal conductivity which boosts zT to 1.6 at 721 K.

Synergistic effect of bonding inhomogeneity and local off-centering within global cubic structure results in ultralow thermal conductivity of n-type AgPbBiSe3.

Understanding the mechanism that correlates phonon transport with chemical bonding and solid-state structure is the key to envisage and develop materials with ultralow thermal conductivity, which are essential for efficient thermoelectrics and thermal barrier coatings. We synthesized thallium selenide (TlSe), which is comprised of intertwined stiff and weakly bonded substructures and exhibits intrinsically ultralow lattice thermal conductivity (κL) of 0.62–0.4 W/mK in the range 295–525 K. Ultralow κL of TlSe is a result of its low energy optical phonon modes which strongly interact with the heat carrying acoustic phonons. Low energy optical phonons of TlSe are associated with the intrinsic rattler-like vibration of Tl+ cations in the cage constructed by the chains of (TlSe2) n n–, as evident in low temperature heat capacity, terahertz time-domain spectroscopy, and temperature dependent Raman spectroscopy. Density functional theoretical analysis reveals the bonding hierarchy in TlSe which involves ionic interaction in Tl+–Se while Tl3+–Se bonds are covalent, which causes significant lattice anharmonicity and intrinsic rattler-like low energy vibrations of Tl+, resulting in ultralow κL.