Pressureless glass crystallization of transparent yttrium aluminum garnet-based nanoceramics

Transparent crystalline yttrium aluminum garnet (YAG; Y(3)Al(5)O(12)) is a dominant host material used in phosphors, scintillators, and solid state lasers. However, YAG single crystals and transparent ceramics face several technological limitations including complex, time-consuming, and costly synthetic approaches. Here we report facile elaboration of transparent YAG-based ceramics by pressureless nano-crystallization of Y(2)O(3)–Al(2)O(3) bulk glasses. The resulting ceramics present a nanostructuration composed of YAG nanocrystals (77 wt%) separated by small Al(2)O(3) crystalline domains (23 wt%). The hardness of these YAG-Al(2)O(3) nanoceramics is 10% higher than that of YAG single crystals. When doped by Ce(3+), the YAG-Al(2)O(3) ceramics show a 87.5% quantum efficiency. The combination of these mechanical and optical properties, coupled with their simple, economical, and innovative preparation method, could drive the development of technologically relevant materials with potential applications in wide optical fields such as scintillators, lenses, gem stones, and phosphor converters in high-power white-light LED and laser diode.