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Journal of Advanced Ceramics 2023, 12(1): 72-81 https://doi.org/10.26599/JAC.2023.9220667
Research Article | Open Access | Issue | Published: 08 December 2022

Anisotropic alumina ceramics with isotropic optical properties

Show Author's Information Akio IKESUE( ),  Yan Lin AUNG
World Lab. Co., Ltd., Nagoya 456-8587, Japan
Keywords:
anisotropy, alumina, isotropy, fracture toughness (KIC), optical ceramics, grain boundary phase
Cite this article:
IKESUE A, AUNG YL. Anisotropic alumina ceramics with isotropic optical properties. Journal of Advanced Ceramics, 2023, 12(1): 72-81. https://doi.org/10.26599/JAC.2023.9220667
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Abstract Full text About this article

Excellent mechanical and isotropic optical properties are achieved simultaneously from fully dense polycrystalline advanced alumina ceramics with a hexagonal crystal structure, which are optically anisotropic. A small amount (240 ppm) of ZrO2 additive is used to synthesize the transparent alumina ceramics with an average grain size of 0.7 µm, and locally detected optical distortion (birefringence) is extremely minimized, less than 20 nm/pass. Total transmittance (86%) of the alumina ceramics (thickness = 0.3 mm) in ultraviolet (UV) to infrared (IR) regions is similar to that of commercial c-axis sapphire single crystals produced by Czochralski (CZ) method, while the extinction ratio in the visible wavelength area is over 25 dB. Like glass and the c-axis sapphire single crystals, the alumina ceramics can clearly display texts and images on liquid crystal display (LCD) screens. A grain boundary phase of nano-sized Al2O3–ZrO2 composition (amorphous) is formed at the grain boundary of the advanced alumina ceramics, which enhances four-point bending strength and fracture toughness (KIC) simultaneously to 921 MPa and 6.8 MPa·m0.5, respectively, and hence the mechanical properties are superior to those of the sapphire single crystals.


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About this article

Anisotropic alumina ceramics with isotropic optical properties

Show Author's information Akio IKESUE( ), Yan Lin AUNG
World Lab. Co., Ltd., Nagoya 456-8587, Japan

Abstract

Excellent mechanical and isotropic optical properties are achieved simultaneously from fully dense polycrystalline advanced alumina ceramics with a hexagonal crystal structure, which are optically anisotropic. A small amount (240 ppm) of ZrO2 additive is used to synthesize the transparent alumina ceramics with an average grain size of 0.7 µm, and locally detected optical distortion (birefringence) is extremely minimized, less than 20 nm/pass. Total transmittance (86%) of the alumina ceramics (thickness = 0.3 mm) in ultraviolet (UV) to infrared (IR) regions is similar to that of commercial c-axis sapphire single crystals produced by Czochralski (CZ) method, while the extinction ratio in the visible wavelength area is over 25 dB. Like glass and the c-axis sapphire single crystals, the alumina ceramics can clearly display texts and images on liquid crystal display (LCD) screens. A grain boundary phase of nano-sized Al2O3–ZrO2 composition (amorphous) is formed at the grain boundary of the advanced alumina ceramics, which enhances four-point bending strength and fracture toughness (KIC) simultaneously to 921 MPa and 6.8 MPa·m0.5, respectively, and hence the mechanical properties are superior to those of the sapphire single crystals.

Keywords: anisotropy, alumina, isotropy, fracture toughness (KIC), optical ceramics, grain boundary phase

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Publication history

Received: 15 July 2022
Revised: 26 September 2022
Accepted: 26 September 2022
Published: 08 December 2022
Issue date: January 2023

Copyright

© The Author(s) 2022.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Ms. Rie Hattori (Sunric Co., Ltd., Japan) for her assistance with the SEM observations and Dr. Sawao Honda (Nagoya Institute of Technology, Japan) for his assistance with the measurement of mechanical properties for this work.

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