Fabrication of Nd:Lu 2.7 Gd 0.3 Al 5 O 12 transparent ceramics by solid-state reactive sintering

Abstract Transparent 1.0 at% Nd:Lu 2.7 Gd 0.3 Al 5 O 12 (Nd:LuGdAG) ceramics were fabricated by the solid-state reactive sintering method using commercial powders as starting materials. The powders were mixed in ethanol with tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) and MgO, dried and pressed. The compacts were vacuum-sintered from 1725 °C to 1800 °C for observing the microstructure and the optical transmittance of Nd:Lu 2.7 Gd 0.3 Al 5 O 12 ceramics. The sample sintered at 1800 °C for 10 h has an almost dense and homogenous structure with the average grain size of 12.8 μm, whose in-line transmittance is about 70% at 1064 nm. The absorption and emission cross sections were calculated to be 1.0 × 10 −20 cm 2 and 1.23 × 10 −18 cm 2 , respectively. It is proved that Nd:LuGdAG ceramics have the potential to be a new solid-state laser material.