Conventional ceramic processing techniques do not produce ultrafine‐grained materials. However, since the mechanical and optical properties are highly dependent on the grain size, advanced processing techniques are needed to obtain ceramics with a grain size smaller than the wavelength of visible light for new laser sources. As an empirical study for lasing from an ultrafine‐grained ceramics, transparent Yb³⁺:Y₂O₃ ceramics with several doping concentrations were fabricated by spark plasma sintering (SPS) and their microstructures were analyzed, along with optical and spectroscopic properties. Laser oscillation was verified for 10 at.% Yb³⁺:Y₂O₃ ceramics. The laser ceramics in our study were sintered without sintering additives, and the SPS produced an ultrafine microstructure with an average grain size of 261 nm, which is about one order of magnitude smaller than that of ceramics sintered by conventional techniques. A load was applied during heating to enhance densification, and an in‐line transmittance near the theoretical value was obtained. An analysis of the crystal structure confirmed that the Yb³⁺:Y₂O₃ ceramics were in a solid solution. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first report verifying the lasing properties of not only ultrafine‐grained but also Yb‐doped ceramics obtained by SPS.

中文翻译：

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火花等离子体烧结制备透明超细Yb3 +：Y2O3激光陶瓷

常规的陶瓷加工技术不能产生超细颗粒的材料。但是，由于机械和光学性能高度依赖于晶粒尺寸，因此需要先进的加工技术来获得晶粒尺寸小于用于新激光源的可见光波长的陶瓷。作为从超细晶粒陶瓷发射激光的实证研究，通过火花等离子体烧结（SPS）制备了具有几种掺杂浓度的透明Yb ³⁺：Y ₂ O ₃陶瓷，并对其微观结构，光学和光谱性质进行了分析。验证了10 at。％Yb ³⁺：Y ₂ O _3的激光振荡陶瓷。我们研究中的激光陶瓷是在没有烧结添加剂的情况下进行烧结的，并且SPS产生了平均粒径为261 nm的超细微结构，比通过传统技术烧结的陶瓷小约一个数量级。在加热过程中施加载荷以增强致密性，并获得接近理论值的在线透射率。晶体结构的分析证实了Yb ³⁺：Y ₂ O ₃陶瓷处于固溶体中。据我们所知，本研究是第一份验证由SPS获得的不仅超细晶粒而且掺Yb陶瓷的激光性能的报告。