Effect of yttrium variation on phase, transparency, and micro-structure of neodymium doped yttrium aluminum garnet ceramic

摘要

Neodymium doped transparent yttrium aluminum garnet ceramics with yttrium excess and deficient (1 to 3 mol %) compositions were fabricated. The samples with stoichiometric and 1.0 mol% yttrium excess are transparent. However, 1.0 mol% yttrium deficiency samples are opaque. The structural and compositional analysis corroborates the presence of alumina as secondary phase for yttrium deficient compositions and yttrium aluminum pe-rovskite for yttrium excess compositions. It is found that yttrium deficiency is highly detrimental to the transparency as compared to yttrium excess. The solubility width of garnet phase is found to be lower than 1.0 mol% for yttrium excess and deficiency.