During the past 10 years, great progress has been made in producing transparent and scatter-free ceramics as laser gain media and optical material. These ceramics offer exciting opportunities that can significantly enhance the optical performance of lasers and other optical systems. In the near future, ceramics will not only replace laser crystals and optical glasses but they will also offer new functionalities. A more homogeneous index of refraction and larger sample sizes compared to single crystals have already been achieved for YAG ceramics. However, research into tailored optical ceramics has just begun.

Some of the prospects for the future are:

- low-cost mass production of high-quality optical ceramics
- ceramics with controlled doping gradients
- ceramics with mixed dopants
- ceramics consisting of ordered, anisotropic microcrystals

Deadline for paper submission is August 31th, 2010.
Deadline for early registration is September 30th, 2010.

 For more information including the complete program please visit the event's website.