Quantitative relationship between microstructure and mechanical properties in Nd: YAG transparent ceramics

Abstract In this work, stereology and fractals were applied to identify the quantitative relation between stereology parameters, fractal dimension, and mechanical properties of Nd: YAG transparent ceramics sintered at 1750 °C for 8–50 h. Mechanical properties and microstructure of the samples were investigated by using universal testing machine, micro-hardness tester, and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), respectively. When the ceramics were sintered at 1750 °C for 50 h, the compressive strength, flexural strength, and Vickers hardness reached 381.6 ± 5.2 MPa, 275.0 ± 5.5 MPa, and 1330.4 ± 18.5 MPa, respectively. Besides, the fracture toughness of ceramic samples was calculated by Vickers hardness. Micrographs of the sample surface and frequency distribution of crystal grains were analyzed by using metallographic image analyzer software. Findings suggest that compressive strength, flexural strength, and Vickers hardness linearly increase upon an increase in equivalent sphere diameter (D3S). However, compressive strength, flexural strength, and Vickers hardness decrease as a function of specific surface area per unit volume of the grains (SV) and discrete grains (SVP) and mean free distance (λ). Perimeter and area of crystal grains were obtained by using Image-Pro Plus image analysis software. The relationship between the fractal dimension of grain boundary and mechanical properties was analyzed based on the area-perimeter (small-island) method. When the grain boundary fractal dimension is close to 1.0, the geometry of ceramic grains tends to be regular, and mechanical properties of ceramic samples increases.