CeraNova will present a review of its work to address processing, properties, and manufacturability challenges for multiple transparent ceramic materials. The high strength and high optical quality of CeraNova’s materials provide significant performance advantages for systems operating in the most demanding environments. CeraNova’s proprietary methods deliver controlled micro-structure and high phase purity for several material systems. CeraNova is developing scaled-up processing, advanced manufacturing, and quality management systems for improved yields and reduced costs. CeraNova is also expanding its materials and product offerings to address the needs of advanced systems such as hypersonic vehicles and directed energy weapons systems.

Recent progress on the procurement, purification, and sintering of a variety of high temperature transparent ceramics is presented. There are numerous applications operating in very harsh environments that require rugged windows. Oxide materials such as Y2O3 and non-oxides such as cubic β-SiC are prime candidates for these applications due to high mechanical strength, good transmission range, and isotropic structure. To fabricate a high transparency window, phase and chemically pure powder precursors must be obtained. Higher purity β-SiC powders are becoming commercially available and multiple sources are analyzed, purified, and sintered to optimize transmission. Both oxide and non-oxide materials are sintered via spark plasma sintering (SPS) and the optical and physical properties are discussed.

An overview of a research program to screen material candidates for more durable windows that operate over a broad temperature and wavelength range is presented. The hardness, high melting points, and oxidation resistance of cubic oxides make them logical material choices to screen. Empirical and density functional theory modeling along with extensive datamining of literature and on-line databases are used to screen materials for window relevant properties. Promising materials are processed and characterized for optical transparency at room and high temperature by high-throughput methods to validate predicted properties. Potential window materials identified by these methods are presented and discussed.

Fluorite structure oxides include cubic-stabilized ZrO2, HfO2, ThO2, UO2, and some rare-earth compositions. Many rare-earth oxides also form cubic bixbyite (Ln2O3) structures. These materials are some of the most refractory oxides known. The optical and thermomechanical properties of fluorite structured oxides and rare-earth bixbyites are reviewed. Existing data on transmittance in the visible and infrared is summarized and compared with theoretical predictions from density functional theory and other physics-based models. Properties such as thermal conductivity, thermal expansion, melting point, modulus, hardness, refractive index, dielectric constant, thermochemical stability, and the trade-offs between these properties and optical properties are also discussed. New results for optical and thermomechanical properties for selected bixbyite and fluorite compositions will be presented, compared with existing data, and with model predictions.