Comparison of Nd:YAG optical ceramics produced by different sintering routes

Nd:YAG ceramics were fabricated by solid-state reactive sintering of commercial powders and vacuum sintering of custom made co-precipitated nanopowders. The densities, microstructure, average grain size, residual porosity, optical transmittances of the sintered ceramics were compared. Nd:YAG ceramics produced by solid-state reactive sintering possess higher transmittance compared to vacuum-sintered ceramics from co-precipitated nanopowders, which is however still lower than that of single crystals. The possible ways to improve optical quality of Nd:YAG ceramics are discussed.