High power submillimeter waves sintering of zirconia ceramics

摘要

We developed a material processing system by using a 300 GHz gyrotron. Partially stabilized zirconia ceramics were successfully sintered by using this submillimeter wave material processing system. We presented the submillimeter wave sintering results. The submillimeter wave sintering curve showed that the sintering was lower for the submillimeter wave processing as compared to the millimeter wave processing at the same temperature. In order to understand this difference, microscope images of cut surfaces were analyzed. The sub-millimeter wave sintered sample has inhomogeneous distribution of pores.