Ce3+ dopant segregation in Y3Al5O12 optical ceramics

Ce3+-doped YAG garnet optical ceramic have been sintered at the Shanghai Institute of Ceramics in China to characterize dopant distribution in optical ceramics by combining optical spectroscopy and two spatially resolved techniques as imaging confocal microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. A strong Ce3+ segregation and spatial variations of content between grains and grain boundaries has been confirmed by quantitative data obtained by TEM microscopy. This observation is another evidence of the inhomogeneous Ce3+ distribution across grain and grain boundaries in optical ceramics comparable to that of Nd3+ ions in YAG ceramics. These results correlate well with low segregation coefficients of Nd3+ and Ce3+ observed in the garnet crystals grown from the melt and/or flux.