Fabrication of transparent Lu3NbO7 by spark plasma sintering

We demonstrated the first successful fabrication of a transparent Lu3NbO7 body by spark plasma sintering (SPS). First. Lu3NbO7 powder was synthesized by a solid-state reaction of Lu2O3 and Nb2O5 powders at 1473 K for 7.2 ks and was sintered by SPS at 1723 K for 2.7 ks. The transparent Lu3NbO7 body had a cubic defect-fluorite structure and uniform microstructure with an average grain size of 0.77 mu m. The transmittance at 550 nm reached 68%. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.