Solid-state reactive sintering of La2-xGdxZr2O7 transparent ceramics and their optical properties

Abstract

Abstract Transparent polycrystalline La2-xGdxZr2O7 (x = 0.4–2.0) ceramics were fabricated by solid-state reactive sintering using commercially available La2O3, Gd2O3 and ZrO2 nanopowders as the raw materials. The phase composition, microstructure evolution, densification and optical transmittance of the resulting ceramics were investigated. XRD and Raman results reveal that both the powders and ceramics are in single-phase pyrochlore structure. With the promotion of Gd content, the disorder degree of pyrochlore structure increases gradually while the cell parameters decrease. The x = 1.0, 1.2 and 1.6 samples exhibit high optical transmittance in the 450 nm-6.0 μm range, and the La0.4Gd1.6Zr2O7 sample shows the highest transmittance of 83.84%. The transparent La2-xGdxZr2O7 ceramics with high optical quality are available as scintillator matrice and high temperature window material.