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Highly transparent 0.5 and 1.0 at% Pr-doped Y2O3 ceramics were fabricated by vacuum sintering plus hot isostatic pressing (HIP) treatment. The selection of suitable pre-sintering temperatures and right microstructures before HIP was critical to obtain high density of the final sintered bodies. The well-densified ceramics had pore-free microstructures with an average grain size of about 1 μm. It was also found that the charge states of the Pr ions could be changed through regulating the annealing atmospheres, resulting in different absorption and emission characteristics in the visible wavelength region. Annealing in reducing atmosphere (5% H2/95% Ar) favored the formation of Pr3+, resulting in stronger red emissions, while annealing in oxygen atmosphere led to the rise of lattice constant due to the concentration increase of oxygen interstitials. The H2/Ar-annealed 0.5 at% Pr:Y2O3 ceramics exhibited strong red emission at 600-675 nm, which may be a promising gain material for red solid-state lasers.


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High transparency Pr:Y2O3 ceramics: A promising gain medium for red emission solid-state lasers

Show Author's information Qing LIaYing WANGaJun WANGa( )Jie MAa( )Meng NIbHui LINcJian ZHANGdPeng LIUaXiaodong XUaDingyuan TANGb
Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Advanced Laser Materials and Devices, School of Physics and Electronic Engineering, Jiangsu Normal University, Xuzhou 221116, China
School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore 639798, Singapore
Engineering Research Center of Optical Instrument and System, Ministry of Education and Shanghai Key Lab of Modern Optical System, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, Shanghai 200093, China
Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 201899, China

Abstract

Highly transparent 0.5 and 1.0 at% Pr-doped Y2O3 ceramics were fabricated by vacuum sintering plus hot isostatic pressing (HIP) treatment. The selection of suitable pre-sintering temperatures and right microstructures before HIP was critical to obtain high density of the final sintered bodies. The well-densified ceramics had pore-free microstructures with an average grain size of about 1 μm. It was also found that the charge states of the Pr ions could be changed through regulating the annealing atmospheres, resulting in different absorption and emission characteristics in the visible wavelength region. Annealing in reducing atmosphere (5% H2/95% Ar) favored the formation of Pr3+, resulting in stronger red emissions, while annealing in oxygen atmosphere led to the rise of lattice constant due to the concentration increase of oxygen interstitials. The H2/Ar-annealed 0.5 at% Pr:Y2O3 ceramics exhibited strong red emission at 600-675 nm, which may be a promising gain material for red solid-state lasers.

Keywords: optical properties, praseodymium ions (Pr3+), Y2O3 ceramic, valence state, defect state

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Publication history

Received: 07 August 2021
Revised: 18 December 2021
Accepted: 29 January 2022
Published: 11 May 2022
Issue date: June 2022

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© The Author(s) 2022.

Acknowledgements

The research is partially supported by the fund of A*Star of Singapore (Grant No. A1883C0003), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 62075089, 61875078, and 61861136007), Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (Grant Nos. BK20191002 and BK20190992), and Postgraduate Research & Practice Innovation Program of Jiangsu Province (Grant No. KYCX20_2339).

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