Development of Laser Optical Materials by Pulsed Electric Current Sintering

Abstract

Pulsed electric current sintering (PECS) technique, which can highly control sintering conditions with uniaxial pressing under vacuum, is effective in fabricating various functional materials. Particularly, high densification rates attained by this sintering technique enable suppressed grain growth during sintering process results in fine-grained microstructures. For laser optics, we show that PECS is also effective for fabricating non-cubic laser materials with fine microstructure, and sapphire/Nd:YAG ceramic composite materials. In this paper, we describe the microstructure, optical characteristics, and lasing properties for the fabricated materials and discuss the future possibility of PECS for applying to laser optics.