Fabrication of Nd:YAG transparent ceramics with both TEOS and MgO additives

Neodymium doped YAG transparent ceramics were fabricated by vacuum reactive sintering method using commercial α-Al2O3, Y2O3 and Nd2O3 powders as the starting materials with both tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) and MgO as sintering aids. The morphologies and microstructure of the powders and Nd:YAG transparent ceramics were investigated. Fully dense Nd:YAG ceramics with average grain size of ∼10 μm were obtained by vacuum sintering at 1780 °C for 8 h. No pores and grain-boundary phases were observed. The in-line transmittance of the ceramic was 83.8% at 1064 nm.

Research highlights
► It is well known that the use of TEOS as sintering aid is required to reach fully dense and transparent Nd:YAG ceramics. However, it is difficult to produce high quality transparent Nd:YAG ceramics only using TEOS as sintering aid. In this present work, high quality transparent Nd:YAG ceramic was fabricated using both TEOS and MgO as sintering aids. There have been few reports that both TEOS and MgO were co-added as sintering aids in YAG or Nd:YAG transparent ceramics to date. The transmittance of Nd:YAG ceramic is 83.8% at 1064 nm. The effect of MgO on the optical properties of transparent ceramics was also studied.