Development of a Manufacturing Capability for Production of Ceramic Laser Materials.

Phifer, C. C. ; Voigt, J. A. ; Gibson, J. T. ; Moore, D. L. ; Lockwood, S. J.

Technical Information Center Oak Ridge Tennessee

关键词: Ceramic materials;    Lasers;    Manufacturing;    Optical properties;    Polymers;   

RP-ID  :  DE2008926379

学科分类：工程和技术（综合）

美国|英语

来源: National Technical Reports Library

【 摘 要 】

A Laboratory Directed Research and Development Program was conducted with the goal of developing a manufacturing capability for polycrystalline ceramic laser host materials. Polycrystalline transparent ceramics (e.i. Nd:YAG), fabricated by sintering of compacts of fine powder, have been recently shown to have optical properties equal to or better than traditional single crystals with advantages such as improved mechanical properties, increased range of composition and of sample size as well as lower cost. Two materials were studied in this program: Nd:YAG as a baseline material that has potential applications of interest to Sandia such as micro-lasers and graded structures, and Cr,Nd:GSGG whose radiation properties make it suitable for applications such as Direct Optical Initiation. Chemical precipitation synthesis techniques were developed for each material, based on adding metal nitrate solutions to a hydroxycarbonate precipitant solution, to produce nano-size powders with controlled and uniform stoichiometry that could be readily crystallized to the desired garnet phase. The crystalline powders were then milled ultrasonically and formed into compacts by vacuum filtration of aqueous particle suspensions that had uniform packing of the powder with minimal contamination and other defects.