Dear Colleagues,

In the last decade, many efforts have been focused on the fabrication and development of transparent polycrystalline ceramics because they can be used as host materials for solid-state lasers (SSL). Ceramics doped with rare-earth elements (RE) such as Yb³⁺, Nd³⁺, Tm³⁺, Dy³⁺, etc, has been considered a promising and attractive way to build up efficient and high-power diode-pumped SSL with short duration pulses.

If compared with single crystals, ceramic fabrication processes make it possible to obtain samples with a more uniform dopant distribution, high levels of doping, excellent thermo-mechanical and optical properties. Moreover, they are more economically advantageous than crystals due to lower processing temperatures and shorter processing times. Since the first laser oscillations many relevant experimental results have been obtained by RE:(Y₂O₃, YAG, LuAG, Lu₂O₃, Sc₂O₃, exc) in terms of laser output power, efficiency, tuning range, duration pulses. It is mainly due to the continuous improvement of sintering methods which have allowed us to manufacture increasingly performing ceramics.    

This Special Issue is aimed to cover the recent research work on fabrication, development e characterization of transparent polycrystalline ceramic materials, so as to provide an insight into the current status and future prospects in this field. Topics can include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Methods and technique of fabrication of transparent ceramics (i.e vacuum sintering, high-pressure sintering, hot pressing (HP), hot isostatic pressing (HIP), Spark plasma sintering, exc);
• Microstructural characterizations (i.e X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), Energy Dispersive X-ray Analysis (EDX), exc);
• Optical characterization (i.e. refraction index, absorption coefficient, transmittance, exc);
• Spectroscopic investigation (i.e emission and absorption cross-sections, photoluminescence spectra, exc);
• Mechanical properties (i.e fracture toughness, Young's modulus, exc);
• Characterization/Simulation of thermal effects (i.e thermal lens, thermal conductivity, temperature gradients, exc);
• Laser tests (laser output powers, slope efficiencies, tunability, exc) ;
• Applications

It is my great pleasure to invite colleagues to submit a manuscript for this Special Issue. Full papers, communications, and reviews on any aspect of transparent ceramic materials are all welcome as well as new results obtained in luminescent laser material field.

Dr. Angela Pirri
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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• Polycristalline ceramics
• Sesquioxides
• Oxides
• Mixed garnets
• Fabrication of ceramic materials
• Microstructure characterization
• Thermal effects
• Optical properties
• Solid-state-laser
• Applications