Post-Sintering Treatment Of Neodymium-Doped Yttrium Aluminum Garnet (Nd:Yag) Transparent Ceramics

The influence of post-sintering treatment by Hot Isostatic Pressing (post-HIP) of Nd:YAG ceramics on their sintering trajectories (grain size as a function of relative density or pore size) was evaluated and compared to trajectories obtained by solid-state reactive sintering (SSRS) under vacuum. This work shows that the separation phenomenon between pores and grain boundaries observed during SSRS can be efficiently avoided thanks to suitable post-HIP conditions. As a result, highly transparent Nd:YAG ceramics with small grain size (< 2 mu m) were elaborated with limited sintering aid (SiO2) content. (C) 2014 Optical Society of America