Investigation of optical, mechanical, and thermal properties of ZrO2-doped Y2O3 transparent ceramics fabricated by HIP

Highly transparent ZrO2-doped Y2O3 ceramics were successfully synthesized using the hot isostatic pressing (HIP) process. The effects of the ZrO2 content on the sintering behaviors, optical transmission spectra, Vickers hardness, grain size, size distribution, and Raman spectra were determined. The results indicated that decreased ZrO2 content could promote increased transmittance, red-shifted infrared cutoff wavelength, increased thermal conductivity, decreased Vickers hardness, and increased lattice ordering. According to the optical transmission spectra, the optimized ZrO2 content was 0.50 at%, at which point the ceramic exhibited a larger pre-sintering temperature range of 1650-1750 °C and the average grain size of 3.35 µm at 1750 °C. The grain size was significantly decreased at lower pre-sintering temperatures. Furthermore, a moderate Vickers hardness of 8.42 GPa and high thermal conductivity of 10.85 W/m K at room temperature were obtained for the optimized ceramic.