Binary transparent (Ho1-xDyx)2O3 ceramics: Compositional influences on particle properties, sintering kinetics and Faraday magneto-optical effects

Binary transparent magneto-optical (Ho1-xDyx)(2)O-3 (x = 0.01-1) ceramics derived from layered rare-earth hydroxide (LRH) compounds were fabricated by vacuum sintering. They have in-line transmittances of similar to 67-77 % at the visible wavelength of 700 nm and similar to 77-84 % at the mid-infrared wavelength of 5 mu m with similar maximal infrared cut-off at 9.5 mu m. The impacts of Dy3+ doping on particle properties, sintering kinetics and Faraday magneto-optical effects were systematically investigated. The results show that (1) The LRH precursors exhibit the nanosheet morphology with the thickness of similar to 6-10 nm. Dy3+ incorporation not only induces an expansion for the hydroxide host layer but also a contracted interlayer distance; (2) Upon calcination at 1100 degrees C, the LRH nanosheets collapse into sphere-like oxide particles. The addition of Dy3+ leads to increasing lattice constants and decreasing theoretical densities for the (Ho,Dy)(2)O-3 solid solutions; (3) A smaller bandgap energy for Dy2O3 (similar to 4.85 eV) was obtained relative to those of (Ho0.9Dy0.1)(2)O-3 (similar to 5.24 eV) and Ho2O3 (similar to 5.31 eV); (4) Dy3+ dopant promotes grain growth and the pure Dy2O3 bulk has a rather smaller grain-boundary-diffusion controlled activation energy (similar to 457 kJ/mol) than the (Ho0.9Dy0.1)(2)O-3 counterpart (similar to 626 kJ/mol); (5) The Verdet constants of magneto-optical (Ho1-xDyx)(2)O-3 ceramics generally linearly increase with the rise of Dy3+ concentration.

Automated summary

The study fabricated binary transparent magneto-optical (Ho1-xDyx)(2)O-3 (x = 0.01-1) ceramics through vacuum sintering and systematically investigated the effects of Dy3+ doping on particle properties, sintering kinetics, and Faraday magneto-optical effects. Dy3+ incorporation led to expansion and contraction of host layers, changes in lattice constants and densities, and promoted grain growth in the ceramics. The Verdet constants of the ceramics were found to linearly increase with Dy3+ concentration.