Fine grained Nd3+:Lu2O3 transparent ceramic with enhanced photoluminescence

Fine-grained Nd3+:Lu2O3 transparent ceramic was developed by a two-step sintering method in flowing H2 atmosphere at T1 = 1720 °C for 15 min and T2 = 1620 °C for 10 h. The initial nanopowders were synthesized by a wet chemical processing with a uniform particle size of about 40 nm. The average grain size of the obtained 3 at.% Nd3+:Lu2O3 ceramic was 406 nm, which is ∼150 times smaller than the coarse-grained ceramic by normal H2 sintering. The emission intensity of the fine-grained transparent ceramic is 3 times of its coarse-grained counterpart, indicating higher Nd concentration without serious quenching in fine-grained transparent ceramic is possible, which agreed well with the prediction of an atomistic modeling work with YAG. EXAFS research demonstrated that with decreasing grain size, higher degree of disorder factor of the local environment of doped Nd atoms was discovered.