Fabrication of Transparent Cerium‐Doped Lutetium Aluminum Garnet Ceramics by Co‐Precipitation Routes

Nanosized, highly sinterable Ce‐doped lutetium aluminum garnet (LuAG:Ce) powders were synthesized by the urea homogeneous co‐precipitation routes. LuAG:Ce transparent ceramics with an average grain size of about 6 μm were successfully fabricated at 1800°C for 10 h by vacuum sintering without sintering aids using the powders calcined at 1000°C for 2 h. The transmittance in the visible light region reaches 65%. The radioluminescence spectrum displays a broad band located at 480–650 nm consisting of two emissions due to the transitions from the lowest 5 d excited state to the 4 f ground state of Ce 3+ , which is consistent with that of LuAG:Ce single crystal and well coupled with the silicon photodiodes.