Assessment of light scattering by pores in Nd:YAG transparent ceramics

► The submicrometer pores as large as visible light wavelength could give rise to a strong scattering effect. ► The scattering was extremely low when the porosity was lower than 0.001% or the pore size was below 0.01 μm. ► Miniaturization and/or elimination of the pores were responsible for low scattering loss. ► Low scattering loss (Csca = 0.001-0.01 cm−1) for Nd:YAG could be achieved by carefully and synergetically controlling pore sizes and porosities to get across the low scattering demarcation curves and enter the region R2.