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Transparent Alumina: A Light‐Scattering Model
Author(s) -
Apetz Rolf,
Bruggen Michel P. B.
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
journal of the american ceramic society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.9
H-Index - 196
eISSN - 1551-2916
pISSN - 0002-7820
DOI - 10.1111/j.1151-2916.2003.tb03325.x
Subject(s) - crystallite , materials science , light scattering , rayleigh scattering , optics , crystal (programming language) , birefringence , scattering , microstructure , debye model , condensed matter physics , physics , composite material , computer science , metallurgy , programming language
A model based on Rayleigh–Gans–Debye light‐scattering theory has been developed to describe the light transmission properties of fine‐grained, fully dense, polycrystalline ceramics consisting of birefringent crystals. This model extends light transmission models based on geometrical optics, which are valid only for coarse‐grained microstructures, to smaller crystal sizes. We verify our model by measuring the light transmission properties of fully dense (>99.99%), polycrystalline α‐Al 2 O 3 (PCA) with mean crystal sizes ranging from 60 to 0.3 μm. The remarkable transparency exhibited by PCA samples with small crystal sizes (<2 μm) is well explained by this model.