Recent progress on the procurement, purification, and sintering of a variety of high temperature transparent ceramics is presented. There are numerous applications operating in very harsh environments that require rugged windows. Oxide materials such as Y2O3 and non-oxides such as cubic β-SiC are prime candidates for these applications due to high mechanical strength, good transmission range, and isotropic structure. To fabricate a high transparency window, phase and chemically pure powder precursors must be obtained. Higher purity β-SiC powders are becoming commercially available and multiple sources are analyzed, purified, and sintered to optimize transmission. Both oxide and non-oxide materials are sintered via spark plasma sintering (SPS) and the optical and physical properties are discussed.
|