Abstract
The most important four-level solid-state laser host, a YAG (Y3Al5O12) single crystal, uses the fluorescence of a small content of Nd3+ ions as active species in the 1064 nm wavelength. In recent years, Nd-doped YAG laser has been applied widely in various industrial capacities, medical operation, metal processing, and others applications. The present author demonstrated in 1994 that the effective laser oscillation was performed successfully for the first time in the world using polycrystalline Nd:YAG ceramics. The present work can be summarized as follows. 1) High-quality Nd:YAG ceramics were fabricated successfully by simple solid-state reaction and vacuum sintering. 2) Such properties of Nd:YAG ceramics as thermo-mechanical properties were nearly the same as those of Nd:YAG single crystal by Cz method. 3) The absorption and fluorescence characteristics of the Nd:YAG ceramics measured were similar or superior to those for an Nd:YAG single crystal.
