Fabrication of composite YAG/Nd:YAG/YAG transparent ceramics for planar waveguide laser

摘要

Composite YAG/Nd:YAG/YAG transparent ceramics for planar waveguide laser were fabricated by non-aqueous tape casting and solid-state reactive sintering. The slurry made from the oxide powder mixtures shows a shear thinning behavior. The morphologies of the tapes were homogeneous in structure, and the tapes had appropriate strength and toughness. After calcining at 600°C for 10h in air, the samples contained less than 0.05wt. of carbon. No gaps were found between the layers on the fracture surface of the green body compacted by cold isostatic pressing. The composite YAG/Nd:YAG/YAG transparent ceramics with in-line transmittance of 82.5 at 1064nm were obtained by vacuum-sintering at 1760°C for 30h, whose average grain size is 36.8μm. The diffusion distance of the Nd3+ ions was about 150μm along the thickness direction of the ceramics.