Fabrication of YAG Transparent Ceramics using Slip Casting with Ethanol

High―quality YAG transparentceramics were fabricated by vacuum sintering technique using the slip casting with anhydrous ethanol as the dispersion medium. The in―line transmittances of the polished sample with the thickness of 3 mm are about 79% in the visible band and 80% in the infra―red band, respectively, which are close to the the oretical transmittance of 84%. The average grain size of the sample sintered at 1800 is about 30 &mgr;m. There are fewpores and no impurities or secondary phases at inner grains or grain boundaries.It can be expected that the anhydrous ethanol slip casting method is a very promising way for the transparent ceramic forming.