A rare earth aluminate sintered compact including rare earth aluminate phosphor crystalline phases and voids, wherein an absolute maximum length of 90% or more by number of rare earth aluminate phosphor crystalline phases is in a range from 0.4 μm to 1.3 μm, and an absolute maximum length of 90% or more by number of voids is in a range from 0.1 μm to 1.2 μm.

A light-emitting ceramic and a light-emitting device. The light-emitting ceramic comprises a YAG substrate and light-emitting centers and diffusion particles evenly dispersed in the YAG substrate. The light-emitting centers are lanthanide-doped YAG fluorescent powder particles of 10-20 μm in grain size. The particle size of the scattering particles is 20-50 nm. The YAG substrate is a lanthanide-doped YAG ceramic. Also, the grain size of the YAG substrate is less than the grain size of the YAG fluorescent powder particles.

A decorative item is made of a ceramic material, where ceramic material includes a carbide phase and an oxide phase, the carbide phase being present in a percentage by volume comprised between 50 and 95% and the oxide phase being present in a percentage by volume comprised between 5 and 50%. The decorative item is manufactured by a method of powder metallurgy.

The object of the present invention is an integrally bonded composite component, a method for the production thereof, and the use thereof. The invention particularly relates to integrally bonded transparent ceramic composite components, to a method for the production of such ceramic composite components, and to the use thereof.

A process for producing a refractory material for use in the superstructure of glass melting tanks contains, as main components, SiO.sub.2, SiC and a binder or binder mixture. A particulate substance, which in the spectral range from 1 μm to 5 μm and at temperatures above 1000° C. has a spectral emission capability which is higher than the spectral emission capability of the matrix of the refractory material, is incorporated into the matrix of the refractory material. A method of increasing the spectral emissivity of shaped, fired, refractory materials, is also provided.

A method of making a plurality of composite granules can include: forming green body granules comprising an aluminosilicate; heating the green body granules to form sintered granules; cooling the sintered granules according to a cooling regime, wherein the cooling regime comprises a temperature hold between 700° C. and 900° C. for at least one hour. In a particular embodiment, the aluminosilicate for making the composite granules can have a particle size less than 150 μm. The composite granules are particularly suitable as roofing granules and can have a desired combination of high solar reflectance SR and low lightness L*, a low bulk density, good weather resistance and strength.

In an X-ray diffraction diagram of a cordierite sintered body of the present invention, the ratio of the total of the maximum peak intensities of components other than cordierite components to the peak top intensity of the (110) plane of cordierite is 0.0025 or less. Since having a significantly small amount of different phases other than the cordierite components, this cordierite sintered body has a high surface flatness when the surface thereof is mirror-polished.

A bismuth and magnesium co-doped lithium niobate crystal includes Li.sub.2CO.sub.3, Nb.sub.2O.sub.5, Bi.sub.2O.sub.3 and MgO, wherein the molar ratio of [Li] and [Nb] is 0.90-1.00, the molar percentage of Bi.sub.2O.sub.3 in the mixture is 0.25-0.80%, and the molar percentage of MgO in the mixture is 3.0-7.0%. The bismuth and magnesium co-doped lithium niobate crystal has enhanced photorefraction, improved photorefractive sensitivity, shortened holographic grating saturation writing time, and the photorefractive diffraction efficiency can reach up to 17%. The response time is only 170 ms, when the holographic storage experiment is carried out using 488 nm continuous laser. Therefore, this crystal can be used in the field of holographic imaging.

The invention relates to a coloured zirconia ceramic dental mill blank having fluorescing properties, processes of production such a mill blank and uses thereof, in particular for producing zirconia ceramic dental restorations.

The dental mill blank having a shape allowing the dental mill blank to be attached or fixed to a machining device, the dental mill blank comprising a porous zirconia material, the porous zirconia material comprising the oxides Zr oxide calculated as ZrO.sub.2: from about 80 to about 97 wt.-%, Al oxide calculated as Al.sub.2O.sub.3: from about 0 to about 0.15 wt.-%, Y oxide calculated as Y.sub.2O.sub.3: from about 1 to about 10 wt.-%, Bi oxide calculated as Bi.sub.2O.sub.3: from about 0.01 to about 0.20 wt.-%, Tb oxide calculated as Tb.sub.2O.sub.3: from about 0.01 to about 0.8 wt.-%, and optionally one or two of the following oxides: Er oxide calculated as Er.sub.2O.sub.3: from about 0.01 to about 3.0 wt.-%, Mn oxide calculated as MnO.sub.2: from about 0.0001 to about 0.08 wt.-%, wt.-% with respect to the weight of the porous zirconia material.

A method for producing a ceramic complex includes: preparing a raw material mixture that contains 5% by mass or more and 40% by mass or less of first rare earth aluminate fluorescent material particles containing an activating element and a first rare earth element different from the activating element, 0.1% by mass or more and 32% by mass or less of oxide particles containing a second rare earth element, and the balance of aluminum oxide particles, relative to 100% by mass of the total amount of the first rare earth aluminate fluorescent material particles, the oxide particles, and the aluminum oxide particles; preparing a molded body of the raw material mixture; and obtaining a sintered body by calcining the molded body in a temperature range of 1,550° C. or higher and 1,800° C. or lower.