Fabrication and phase transition of La2-xLuxZr2O7 transparent ceramics

A series of transparent ceramics with the composition of La2-xLuxZr2O7 (x = 0-2.0) were prepared by solid-state reactive sintering in vacuum. With the increase of Lu content (x), phase transition from pyrochlore to defective fluorite occurred and a two-phase region existed in the range of x = 0.6-1.2. Grain sizes of the pyrochlore phase dominated samples (x<0.5) were 11-14 mu m, and that of the defective fluorite phase dominated samples were larger than 60 mu m. However, grain sizes of the samples in the two-phase region were smaller than 3 mu m. The La0.8Lu1.2Zr2O7 ceramic with the smallest grain size (similar to 2.5 mu m) reached a highest in-line transmittance of 72.4% at 1100 nm among all the samples (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.