Development of SiAlON - From Mechanical to Optical Applications

Various rare-earth-doped α-SiAlON powders with high purity were prepared to study mechanical and optical properties of SiAlON-based functional materials in connection with ionic radius and electronic structure of rare-earth elements. Single phase rare-earth-doped α-SiAlON powders were obtained at a temperature as low as 1873 K by heating powder mixtures of rare-earth oxide, AlN and highly active ultrafine amorphous Si3N4. Bending strength of highly dense rare-earth-doped α/β-SiAlON-based ceramics was increased with decreasing radii of rare-earth ions, i.e., Yb-SiAlON-based ceramics exhibited excellent high-temperature strength and oxidation resistance caused by the small ionic radius of ytterbium. As for optical application, α-SiAlON is an excellent host lattice with good thermal and chemical stability for doping rare-earth element which activates photoluminescence. Europium-doped Ca-α-SiAlON phosphor formulated as CaxEuy(Si,Al)12(O,N)16 (where 0<x+y<2) was prepared to obtain high quality phosphor with high brightness and desired emission characteristics. Photoluminescence spectra of the resultant Europium-doped Ca-α-SiAlON exhibited high emission intensity at peak wavelength of 580-600 nm giving the better yellow color tone than Cerium-doped yttrium aluminum garnet for applying white LED. It was demonstrated that nitrides or oxynitrides were the innovative materials for the diverse range of high performance specialty applications.