Transparent Yttrium Aluminium Garnet Obtained by Spark Plasma Sintering of Lyophilized Gels

Abstract EN

Lyophilized YAG gel, synthesized by the coprecipitation technique, has been sintered to transparency by spark plasma sintering method at 1500∘C.

Whereas conventionally dried gels show large agglomerates, over 1 μm, powders from lyophilized gels show no agglomeration with an average particle size below 100 nm.

The absence of agglomerates affects on the optical properties of the sintered materials: conventionally dried powders are opaque after sintering, whereas 0.8 mm thick transparent YAG materials with in-line transmittances close to 60% at 680 nm and over 80% in the infrared range have been obtained for the lyophilized gels.