@article{Li2026, 
author = {Qing Li and Dongliang Xing and Jun Wang and Fengkai Ma and Jie Ma and Peng Liu and Fei Liang and Jian Zhang and Haohai Yu and Huaijin Zhang and Dingyuan Tang},
title = {Defect regulation and photodarkening suppression in Yb:Y2O3 laser ceramics through charge-compensated Zr–Ca co-doping strategy},
year = {2026},
journal = {Journal of Advanced Ceramics},
volume = {15},
number = {6},
pages = {9221312},
keywords = {sesquioxide ceramics, Zr–Ca codoping, sintering behavior, point defects, laser performance},
url = {https://www.sciopen.com/article/10.26599/JAC.2026.9221312},
doi = {10.26599/JAC.2026.9221312},
abstract = {Sesquioxide ceramics are promising candidates for high-power laser applications, yet achieving high optical quality remains challenging. This is primarily due to rapid grain-boundary mobility during the final stage of sintering and pump-induced photodarkening under high-power excitation, particularly when traditional tetravalent sintering additives (e.g., ZrO2) are used. Here, approximately 1 : 1 (molar) Zr4+–Ca2+ codoping is introduced to regulate the sintering behaviors of Yb:Y2O3 ceramics, yielding dense microstructures with uniform elemental distributions. The charge compensation enabled by Zr–Ca codoping suppresses the formation of point defects, thereby significantly mitigating photodarkening. As a result, the optimized 0.02 at% Zr–Ca codoped sample delivers a maximum continuous-wave (CW) output power of 20.5 W at 1076 nm with a slope efficiency of 65.4%. These results demonstrate that Zr–Ca codoping is an effective strategy for fabricating high-performance sesquioxide laser ceramics with improved optical quality and enhanced resistance to pump-induced photodarkening.}
}