Nanometer-sized YSZ powders production by means of target evaporation using high-efficient pulsed-repetitive CO/sub 2/-laser

Our paper reports about YSZ powders production by successive evaporation and crystallization in the gas stream. In the laser applied the original method of active medium excitation was used. Efficiency of the laser constructed on the basis of this method reached 22% and specific power output /spl sim/1 W/cm/sup 3/. Pulsed regime is proved to be more efficient for active medium excitation and target evaporation then continuous one. Targets made from coarse YSZ powder with a Y/sub 2/O/sub 3/ content of 10.15 mol.% were evaporated and crystallized in a stream of cleaned air. Cubic-structure YSZ particles were obtained which had a shape close to spherical. Particle size distribution was close to a lognormal distribution with dg=10 nm and /spl sigma/=1.75. Specific surface of the powder was up to 70 m/sup 2//g, while the Y/sub 2/O/sub 3/ content reduced to 9.8 mol.%.