Effects of Y<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub> and LiAl<sub>5</sub>O<sub>8</sub> on the Microstructure and Optical Properties of Reactively Sintered AlON Based Transparent Ceramics
Guojian Yang,
Peng Sun,
Yuezhong Wang,
Zitao Shi,
Qingwei Yan,
Shasha Li,
Guoyong Yang,
Ke Yang,
Shijie Dun,
Peng Shang,
Lifen Deng,
He Li,
Nan Jiang
Affiliations
Guojian Yang
Key Laboratory of Marine Materials and Related Technologies, Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ningbo 315201, China
Peng Sun
Tianjin Key Laboratory of Optical Thin Films, Tianjin Jinhang Technical Physics Institute, Tianjin 300192, China
Yuezhong Wang
Key Laboratory of Marine Materials and Related Technologies, Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ningbo 315201, China
Zitao Shi
Key Laboratory of Marine Materials and Related Technologies, Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ningbo 315201, China
Qingwei Yan
Key Laboratory of Marine Materials and Related Technologies, Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ningbo 315201, China
Shasha Li
Key Laboratory of Marine Materials and Related Technologies, Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ningbo 315201, China
Guoyong Yang
Key Laboratory of Marine Materials and Related Technologies, Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ningbo 315201, China
Ke Yang
Key Laboratory of Marine Materials and Related Technologies, Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ningbo 315201, China
Shijie Dun
Tianjin Key Laboratory of Optical Thin Films, Tianjin Jinhang Technical Physics Institute, Tianjin 300192, China
Peng Shang
Tianjin Key Laboratory of Optical Thin Films, Tianjin Jinhang Technical Physics Institute, Tianjin 300192, China
Lifen Deng
Key Laboratory of Marine Materials and Related Technologies, Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ningbo 315201, China
He Li
Key Laboratory of Marine Materials and Related Technologies, Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ningbo 315201, China
Nan Jiang
Key Laboratory of Marine Materials and Related Technologies, Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ningbo 315201, China
Sintering aid was very crucial to influence the microstructure and thus the optical property of the sintered optical ceramics. The purpose of this work was to explain the difference between the sintering aids of Li+ and Y3+ on Al23O27N5 (AlON) ceramic via reaction sintering method. The effects of LiAl5O8 (LA) and Y2O3 on the sintering of Al2O3–AlN system were carefully compared, in terms of X-ray diffraction (XRD), microstructure, density, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and optical transmittance. According to the XPS and XRD lattice analysis, the chemical structure of the materials was not obviously affected by different dopants. We firstly reported that, there was obvious volume expansion in the Y3+ dopped AlON ceramics, which was responsible for the low transparency of the ceramics. Obvious enhancements were achieved using Li+ aids from the results that Li: AlONs showing a higher transparency and less optical defects. A higher LA content (20 wt%) was effective to remove pores and thus obtain a higher transmittance (~86.8% at ~3.5 μm). Thus, pores were the main contributions to the property difference between the dopant samples. The importance of sintering aids should be carefully realized for the reaction sintering fabrication of AlON based ceramics towards high transparency.
