Densification Behavior in Spark-Plasma-Sintering of MgAl₂O₄ Spinel

The densification mechanism in park-plasma-sintering (SPS) processing was examined in MgAl2O4 spinel. As the relative density ρt increases, that is, as the effective stress σeff decreases, stress exponent n evaluated from effective stress-densification rate relationship continuously varies from n  4 to n  1. TEM observation shows that significant stacking faults caused by partial dislocations are frequently observed in the low ρt region. The results suggest that, for spinel, the predominant densification mechanism in SPS processing changes with ρt from plastic flow by a partial dislocation motion in the low ρt region (n  4) to diffusion-related creep in the high ρt region (n  1).