A new method of fabricating porous alumina using powder synthesis by chemical solution deposition followed by fast laser firing is proposed. Although there are many reports of alumina films synthesized using chemical solution deposition [1–6], heat treatment above 1000 ◦C is needed to crystallize the aluminum hydroxide gel, which is prepared by the hydrolysis of aluminum alkoxide precursor, to α-alumina [1]. Laser firing is an excellent method for rapid heat treatment at temperatures above 1000 ◦C. Fast laser firing of sol– gel coating films, such as alumina, silica, titania and SnO2:Sb, is now established [6–10], but the sintering of pressed sol–gel derived powder using laser firing has not yet been reported. A problem with the synthesis of a sol–gel derived monolithic body is breakage due to shrinkage of the gel body during the drying process, and due to weight loss with burnout of organic residues in the heating process. Here, to prepare a porous alumina disk without breakage, fast laser firing is applied to crystallize a pressed powder disk, which is a compact of amorphous alumina powder that has been preheattreated at a temperature that prevents weight loss. Fig. 1 shows the procedure for preparing porous alumina. Amorphous alumina powder is prepared by a modified sol–gel method using aluminum alkoxide as a starting material. For each mole of aluminum tri-secbutoxide, which is dissolved in ethyl acetate, 2 moles of acetic acid are added into ethanol and the two are mixed at around 80 ◦C to prepare a homogeneous precursor solution. Homogeneous gel powder is prepared by evaporating the solvent of ethyl acetate and ethanol at this temperature. Properties of the gel powder were determined using differential thermal analysis and thermogravimetry (TG/DTA 2000, MAC Science Co. Ltd., Tokyo, Japan). Fig. 2 shows DTA and TG data for the gel powder. Two broad endothermic peaks are seen at 95 and 210 ◦C, and a single broad exothermic peak around 420 ◦C, associated with the weight loss in TG. With DTA, two further weak exothermic peaks are visible at 878 and 1156 ◦C, without weight loss. The endothermic peak at 95 ◦C is due to evaporation of ethyl acetate and ethanol solvent remained in the gel powder. The endothermic peak at 210 ◦C is due to dehydration. The exothermic peak with weight loss at 420 ◦C is the result of burnout of organic residues. Weight loss virtually ceases at around 500 ◦C. The two exothermic peaks without weight loss are due to phase transitions of alumina. The peak at 878 ◦C is tentatively identified as η-alumina to θ -alumina, and Figure 1 Procedure for preparing porous alumina.