Influence of heating rate on optical properties of Nd:YAG laser ceramic

Using commercial α-Al2O3, Y2O3 and Nd2O3 as raw materials, 0.8 at% Nd:YAG ceramics were fabricated by solid-state reaction and vacuum sintering technology, with tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) as sintering aid. The Nd:YAG ceramics were obtained by sintering at 1750 °C for 20 h under vacuum. The sintering process with different heating rate of the Nd:YAG ceramics have been studied during the present work. The grain sizes, pores and secondary phase amounts increased versus increasing the heating rate. The optical properties of the Nd:YAG ceramics were closely related to the microstructures of the specimens. The lasing performance of the Nd:YAG ceramics changed drastically with change in pores and secondary phase amounts.