Fabrication of transparent crystal-oriented polycrystalline strontium barium niobate ceramics for electro-optical application

The transparent polycrystalline ceramics with anisotropic crystal system was successfully fabricated by colloidal processing in a high magnetic field and subsequent vacuum sintering and hot isostatic pressing sintering. In this study, we report the fabrication of the transparent c-axis-oriented Sr0.6Ba0.4Nb2O6 (SBN60) ceramics. The degree of orientation of SBN60 expressed as the Lotgering factor was ∼1.0 and its relative density was over 99.9%. The transmittance of the crystal-oriented SBN60 was 50% at 1500 nm. Optical phase modulation of SBN60 was successfully observed through the measurement of its phase modulation, which confirms the presence of an electro-optical effect.