Effect of debinding and sintering profile on the optical properties of DLP-3D printed YAG transparent ceramic

With no extra assistance of CIP or HIP, YAG transparent ceramics were successfully fabricated by digital light processing (DLP) stereolithography method followed by careful debinding and vacuum sintering. We systematically studied the effect of heating rate, atmosphere during debinding and the heating rate, holding time during sintering on the light transmittance of YAG ceramics. All results indicated that debinding in the 95N2/5H2 mixture is the key controlling factor for achieving better densification and optical properties, regardless of the sintering profile. However, a lower heating rate can indeed promote the densification process and balance some shortcomings linked with the debinding in air. At least, three different debinding processes and three different sintering profiles are combined, which leads to a high in-line transmittance of ∽77%.