Highly transparent Y2O3 ceramics were produced using spark plasma sintering (SPS) at 1600 °C and 30 MPa for 5 min. When the SPS process was applied with various amounts of La2O3 as dopant. The specimen doped with 3 mol% La2O3 showed the highest density, and rapid particle growth and pore growth occurred, exhibiting that the relative density and average grain size are 99.2% and 17.2 μm, respectively. The specimen showed excellent transmittance of 79.44% in the visible light region (600 nm), resulting that La2O3 would be a useful dopant for improving the transmittance and mechanical properties of transparent Y2O3 ceramics produced with SPS.

Keywords: Y2O3 Transparent ceramics, Spark plasma sintering, Densification, La2O3, Sintering aid.