A method for manufacturing a ceramic material includes a step of performing heat treatment in a reducing atmosphere on a ceramic material in which a metallic oxide is diffused in crystal grains, thereby to reduce the metallic oxide to deposit a metallic element at grain boundaries of the ceramic material.

Functionalized microspheres for being dispersed in matrix materials to reduce the density and weight of the materials may be configured to include a covalently bound surface component which is configured to covalently bond with the matrix material so that when combined with the matrix material a strong, light-weight matrix material may be produced.

Functionalized microspheres for being dispersed in matrix materials to reduce the density and weight of the materials may be configured to include a covalently bound surface component which is configured to covalently bond with the matrix material so that when combined with the matrix material a strong, light-weight matrix material may be produced.

A method for conditioning a ceramic layer with a thickness of less than 150 m over a substrate is provided. The ceramic layer is cleaned. A region of the ceramic layer is scanned with a pulsed excimer laser beam at a repetition rate of 3-300 Hz.

Provided is a sputtering target having extremely low occurrence of arcing or nodules, and a method for manufacturing such a sputtering target. A flat plate-shaped or cylindrical target material (3, 13) is obtained by processing a material composed of an oxide sintered body. In doing so, a grindstone having a specified grade is used to perform rough grinding of a surface of the material that will become a sputtering surface (5, 15) one or more times in accordance to the grade of the grindstone, after which zero grinding is performed one or more times so that the surface roughness of the sputtering surface (5, 15) has an arithmetic mean roughness Ra of 0.9 m or more, a maximum height Rz of 10.0 m or less, and Rz.sub.JIS roughness of 7.0 m or less. A sputtering target (1, 11) is obtained by bonding the obtained target material (3, 13) to a backing body (2, 12) by way of a bonding layer (4, 14).

Functionalized microspheres for being dispersed in matrix materials to reduce the density and weight of the materials may be configured to include a covalently bound surface component which is configured to covalently bond with the matrix material so that when combined with the matrix material a strong, light-weight matrix material may be produced.

Functionalized microspheres for being dispersed in matrix materials to reduce the density and weight of the materials may be configured to include a covalently bound surface component which is configured to covalently bond with the matrix material so that when combined with the matrix material a strong, light-weight matrix material may be produced.

A method, including: laser heating heat-source material (18) disposed in ceramic material (16); and sintering the ceramic material using heat energy generated in the heat-source material by the laser heating to form sintered ceramic (32) having inconsistencies (40) caused by the heat-source material.

A method, including: laser heating heat-source material (18) disposed in ceramic material (16); and sintering the ceramic material using heat energy generated in the heat-source material by the laser heating to form sintered ceramic (32) having inconsistencies (40) caused by the heat-source material.

Functionalized microspheres for being dispersed in matrix materials to reduce the density and weight of the materials may be configured to include a covalently bound surface component which is configured to covalently bond with the matrix material so that when combined with the matrix material a strong, light-weight matrix material may be produced.