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Ho:Lu3Al5O12(Lu AG) transparent ceramics are potential 2 μm eye-safe laser materials. Polycrystalline 0.8 at.% Ho:Lu AG ceramics with high optical quality were successfully fabricated by solid-state reactive sintering of high-purity oxide powders. The microstructure, the optical transmission, the spectrum characteristic, and the laser performance were investigated in this paper. The average grain size of Ho:Lu AG ceramics vacuum sintered at 1830°C for 30 hour is about 14 μm. The in-line transmittance of the sample is measured to be 81.7% and 82.0% at 1000 and 2250 nm, respectively. The absorption and the emission cross sections are calculated to be 0.88 × 10−20 cm2 at 1906 nm and 1.26 × 10−20 cm2 at 2094 nm. Using a thulium-doped yttrium-lithium-fluoride (Tm: YLF) laser with the central wavelength of 1907.5 nm as the pump source, 2.67 W continuous wave ( CW) laser operation at 2100.74 nm was obtained with a slope efficiency of 26.5%. The beam quality factor M2 was calculated to be 1.1, which indicated nearly diffraction-limited beam propagation and the laser was the fundamental TEM00 Gaussian mode. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transparent Fe 2+ :ZnS polycrystals are 3–5 μm mid-IR laser gain materials with great importance. In this paper, a novel route combining wet-chemical co-precipitation, hot-pressed sintering and post hot isostatic pressing (HIP) treatment was proposed for Fe 2+ :ZnS transparent ceramics. Fe 2+ :ZnS powders were synthesized successfully by the wet-chemical co-precipitation method, which was suitable for particle size and morphology controlling and then ceramics consolidation. Transparent Fe 2+ :ZnS ceramics with comparatively high optical quality were successfully fabricated by two step sintering method combining hot pressing and post-HIP treatment. This approach is a promising candidate for fabricating Fe 2+ :ZnS ceramics with large size, low cost, short cycle, and flexible concentration distribution design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, (Lu 1-x Gd x ) 2 O 3 :Eu (x = 0, 0.1, 0.3, 0.5, 0.7, 0.9) ceramics were consolidated by the solid-state reaction method combined with vacuum sintering without sintering aids. We investigated the effect of the varying contents of Gd 2 O 3 on the structure and spectroscopic properties of (Lu 1-x Gd x ) 2 O 3 :Eu ceramics. X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns indicate that proper amount of Gd 2 O 3 can incorporate well with Lu 2 O 3 and form Lu 2 O 3 -Gd 2 O 3 solid solution. However, excessive Gd 3+ -doping in Lu 2 O 3 will lead to the cubic phase transforming into monoclinic even hexagonal phase. The Gd 3+ substitution no more than 50% of Lu 2 O 3 enhances the radioluminescence, and reduces the fluorescence lifetime. Transmittance, photoluminescence, and radiation damage of the (Lu 1-x Gd x ) 2 O 3 :Eu scintillation ceramics were also studied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]