Fabrication and microstructure development of Yb:YAG transparent ceramics from co-precipitated powders without additives

Sintering additives are generally considered to be important for improving densification in fabrication of transparent ceramics. However, the sintering aids as impurities doped in the laser materials would decrease the laser output power and produce additional heat during laser operation. In this work, Yb:YAG ceramics were vacuum-sintered without additives at different temperatures for various soaking time through using ball-milled powders synthesized by co-precipitation route. The densification behavior and grain growth kinetics of Yb:YAG ceramics were systematically investigated through densification curves and microstructural characterizations. It was determined that the densification in the 1500 degrees C-1600 degrees C temperature range was controlled by a grain-boundary diffusion. It is revealed that the volume diffusion is the main mechanism controlling the grain growth between 1600 degrees C and 1750 degrees C. Although SiO2 additives can promote densification during low-temperature sintering, the optical transmittance of Yb:YAG ceramic with no additives, sintered at 1800 degrees C for 15 hours, reaches a maximum of 83.4% at 1064 nm, very close to the measured transmittance value of Yb:YAG single crystal. The optical attenuation loss was measured at 1064 nm in Yb:YAG transparent ceramic, to be 0.0035 cm(-1), a value close to that observed for single crystals.