Highly Transparent BaAl₄O₇ Polycrystalline Ceramic Obtained by Full Crystallization from Glass

Fully dense, transparent polycrystalline ceramics are simply obtained by direct and complete crystallization from glass. This is demonstrated for the previously unreported composition, BaAl4O7, which exhibits two orthorhombic polymorphs with micrometer grain size, both optically transparent in the visible range. This innovative synthetic route to transparent polycrystalline ceramics should facilitate the discovery of new cost-effective chemical methods for transparent ceramic applications. Detailed facts of importance to specialist readers are published as ”Supporting Information”. Such documents are peer-reviewed, but not copy-edited or typeset. They are made available as submitted by the authors. Please note: The publisher is not responsible for the content or functionality of any supporting information supplied by the authors. Any queries (other than missing content) should be directed to the corresponding author for the article.