Fabrication of highly-transparent Er:CaF2 ceramics by hot-pressing technique

Highly-transparent trivalent erbium ion doped calcium fluoride (5 mol % Er:CaF2) ceramics were fabricated by a hotpressing (HP) method using high-purity Er:CaF2 nanoparticles, which were synthesized by co-precipitation method. The mean grain size of the nanoparticles was about 24.7 nm. The nanoparticles were sintered at 600 °C, 700 °C, 800 °C and 900 °C, respectively, for 30 min under a uniaxial pressure of 30 MPa and vacuum of 10−3 Pa with 1 mol % lithium fluoride (LiF) as sintering additive. The 5 mol % Er:CaF2 ceramics sintered at 800 °C exhibits high density and pore-free microstructure with an average grain size of about 8 μm. The optical transmittance of the transparent ceramics is close to 85 % at visible and nearinfrared wavelengths. The strong and broad absorptions peaks corresponding to characteristic absorption of trivalent erbium ions make the ceramics a potential candidate for infrared and upconversion laser operating.