Transparent laser ceramics by stereolithography

A lithography-based additive manufacturing technique was used for the first time to produce laser-emitting transparent 10 at.% Yb-doped yttrium aluminum garnet (Yb:YAG) ceramics from a mixture of oxide powders as starting materials. The ceramics were densified by vacuum sintering. Output power of more than 2.16 W and a slope efficiency of 17.6% were achieved under quasi-continuous-wave laser pumping.