Fabrication and luminescent properties of highly transparent Er3Al5O12 ceramics

Highly transparent Er3Al5O12 (ErAG) ceramic was fabricated by a solid-state reactive sintering method under vacuum. The optical property, microstructure and up-conversion luminescence of the ErAG ceramic were investigated. For the 3 mm thick sample, the in-line transmittance at the wavelength of 3000 nm and 425 nm were about 84% and 81%, respectively, which was very close to the theoretical transmittance of the Er3Al5O12 single crystal. Micrograph of the ErAG transparent ceramic exhibited a pore-free structure and the density of the ceramic was measured to be 6.38 g/cm3. Average grain size of the ceramic was about 9 μm. When pumped by a 980 nm laser diodes (LD), strong green and red emission in the ErAG ceramic was observed from the photoluminescence (PL) spectrum. The luminescent properties of the ceramic under the excitation of LD with various pumping power were investigated.