Fabrication and Sintering Behavior of Er:SrF₂ Transparent Ceramics using Chemically Derived Powder

Jun Liu; Peng Liu; Jun Wang; Xiaodong Xu; Dongzhen Li; Jian Zhang; Xinming Nie

doi:10.3390/ma11040475

Fabrication and Sintering Behavior of Er:SrF₂ Transparent Ceramics using Chemically Derived Powder

Materials (Basel). 2018 Mar 22;11(4):475. doi: 10.3390/ma11040475.

Authors

Jun Liu¹, Peng Liu², Jun Wang³, Xiaodong Xu⁴, Dongzhen Li⁵, Jian Zhang⁶, Xinming Nie⁷

Affiliations

¹ Jiangsu Key Laboratories of Advanced Laser Materials and Devices, School of Physics and Electronics Engineering, Jiangsu Normal University, Xuzhou 221116, China. ljun2kmi@gmail.com.
² Jiangsu Key Laboratories of Advanced Laser Materials and Devices, School of Physics and Electronics Engineering, Jiangsu Normal University, Xuzhou 221116, China. liupeng_tju@126.com.
³ Jiangsu Key Laboratories of Advanced Laser Materials and Devices, School of Physics and Electronics Engineering, Jiangsu Normal University, Xuzhou 221116, China. jwang025@e.ntu.edu.sg.
⁴ Jiangsu Key Laboratories of Advanced Laser Materials and Devices, School of Physics and Electronics Engineering, Jiangsu Normal University, Xuzhou 221116, China. xdxu79@mail.sic.ac.cn.
⁵ Jiangsu Key Laboratories of Advanced Laser Materials and Devices, School of Physics and Electronics Engineering, Jiangsu Normal University, Xuzhou 221116, China. dzhl@siom.ac.cn.
⁶ Key Laboratory of Transparent Opto-Functional Inorganic Materials, Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200050, China. jianzhang@mail.sic.ac.cn.
⁷ Jiangsu Key Laboratories of Advanced Laser Materials and Devices, School of Physics and Electronics Engineering, Jiangsu Normal University, Xuzhou 221116, China. nxinming@jsnu.edu.cn.

Abstract

In this paper, we report the fabrication of high-quality 5 at. % Er³⁺ ions doped SrF₂ transparent ceramics, the potential candidate materials for a mid-infrared laser-gain medium by hot-pressing at 700 °C for 40 h using a chemically-derived powder. The phase structure, densification, and microstructure evolution of the Er:SrF₂ ceramics were systematically investigated. In addition, the grain growth kinetic mechanism of Er:SrF₂ was clarified. The results showed lattice diffusion to be the grain growth mechanism in the Er:SrF₂ transparent ceramic of which highest in-line transmittance reached 92% at 2000 nm, i.e., very close to the theoretical transmittance value of SrF₂ single crystal. Furthermore, the emission spectra showed that the strongest emission band was located at 2735 nm. This means that it is possible to achieve a laser output of approximately 2.7 μm in the 5 at. % Er³⁺ ions doped SrF₂ transparent ceramics.

Keywords: Er:SrF2; co-precipitation method; densification; lattice diffusion; transparent ceramics.