Fabrication and luminescent properties of uranium doped Y2O3 transparent ceramics by sintering aid combinations

Uranium doped Y(2)O(3 )transparent ceramics with ZrO2 and La2O3 as sintering aids, Ca-2(+) as charge compensator were successfully fabricated via a vacuum solid-state reactive sintering for the first time. The obtained ceramic showed a pure cubic Y(2)O(3 )phase structure and homogeneous microstructure with the average grain size of 20 mu m. The in-line transmittance of the obtained U: Y(2)O(3 )reached 78% at 1300 nm. And the cut-off wavelength shifted from 250 nm to 520 nm, which was ascribed to the absorption of uranate ions. XPS and photoluminescence study confirmed uranium stabilizes as +6 oxidation state in the form of UO66-. The decay curve shows two lifetime values indicating that uranate ions are not homogeneously distributed in Y(2)O(3 )and it has two different environments due to its stabilization at both C-2 and S-6 sites. The lifetime population analysis shows that most UO66- ions were located at the non-centrosymmetric C-2 site. The experimental results are helpful in designing Y(2)O(3 )based optoelectronic material as well exploring it for uranium studies.