Structural, microstructural, and luminescent properties of laser-sintered Eu-doped YAG ceramics

Abstract This work reports the laser sintering of Eu doped Y3Al5O12 (YAG:Eu) ceramics and their luminescent response as a function of Eu concentration. The laser sintering technique consists of using a CO2 laser to thermally activate the sintering process. The YAG:Eu powders were synthesized by a polymeric precursor method and yielded single cubic crystalline phase particles after calcination at 1000 °C for 2 h as determined by x-ray diffraction. The laser-sintered ceramics with a total sintering time of 7 min exhibited high relative density and homogeneous microstructure. The photoluminescent spectra of the YAG:Eu laser-sintered ceramics presented the well-know Eu3+ emissions along with two additional bands associated with Eu2+, as confirmed by XANES, even when sintered in air.