FIGURE 2. Bulk rare-earth aluminate glasses.
From the following article:
Bulk glasses and ultrahard nanoceramics based on alumina and rare-earth oxides
A. Rosenflanz, M. Frey, B. Endres, T. Anderson, E. Richards & C. Schardt
Nature 430, 761-764(12 August 2004)
doi:10.1038/nature02729
a–e, Optical photograph of bulk ALZ materials. a, b, no dopants used; c, 5wt% Nd2O3; d, 5wt% Eu2O3; e, 5wt% Er2O3. All except b were hot-pressed at 905 °C at 34 MPa for 360 s. Material b was hot-pressed similarly but with the holding time extended to 1,200 s, inducing partial crystallization, giving the opalescent appearance. f, g, X-ray diffraction patterns (f) and DTA traces (g) of the microbead and bulk forms of a, showing their amorphous nature and similar thermal behaviour.
