Highly transparent Ce-doped yttria stabilized zirconia ceramics with bright red color

Red cerium doped 8 mol% yttria stabilized zirconia (Ce-doped 8YSZ) transparent ceramics were prepared by the two-step sintering method using commercial powders as raw materials. The ceramics after pre-sintering at 1300 °C for 2 h and hot isostatic pressing (HIP) post-treatment at 1700 °C for 3 h showed a high in-line transmittance and a large redness due to the 4f-5d transition absorption of Ce3+ at about 390–550 nm, and the values were 70.7% (@ 700 nm) and 57.1, respectively. The influences of air annealing temperature on the color and optical quality of the red Ce-doped 8YSZ transparent ceramics were studied. With the increase of annealing temperature, the color of the ceramics shifted from red to orange-red and then to nearly colorless, while the redness value decreased from 57.1 to 0.8 due to the oxidation of Ce3+ to Ce4+. The in-line transmittance of the ceramics decreased from 70.7% to 46.5% at 700 nm due to the expansion of the compressed residual pores, and the cut-off wavelength blue-shifted from 580 to 380 nm due to the disappearance of absorption peak at about 390–550 nm of Ce3+after annealing at 1200 °C.