Fabrication, microstructure and optical properties of polycrystalline Er3+:Y3Al5O12 ceramics

Highly transparent polycrystalline Er3+:Y3Al5O12 (Er:YAG) ceramics with different Er3+ ions content from 1% to 90% were prepared by the solid-state reaction and the vacuum-sintering technique. The grain boundary is clean and narrow with a width of about 1 nm. The best sintering temperature of the ceramics is about 1800 °C. The relationships between fabrication, microstructure and transparency of the ceramics were discussed. Grain size distributions in axial direction of cylinder samples were characterized by electron probe micro-analyzer (EPMA). The luminescence spectra were measured and discussed.