A solid electrolyte includes partially stabilized zirconia in which a stabilizer forms a solid solution in zirconia. The partially stabilized zirconia includes, as crystal particles that configure the partially stabilized zirconia, stabilizer low-concentration phase particles of which concentration of the stabilizer at a particle center is less than 4.7 mol % and stabilizer high-concentration phase particles of which the concentration of the stabilizer at the particle center is equal to or greater than 4.7 mol %. The partially stabilized zirconia includes an adjacent particle portion in which two or more particles of the stabilizer low-concentration phase particles of which an average particle size is greater than 0.1 m are adjacent. An abundance ratio of the stabilizer high-concentration phase particles on a cross-section of the solid electrolyte is equal to or greater than 70% in terms of area ratio relative to all crystal particles.

A conversion element, a radiation-emitting semiconductor device and a method for producing a conversion element are disclosed. In an embodiment a conversion element includes a ceramic luminescent material and a flux material, wherein the flux material has a boiling temperature above 1500 C. and/or a melting temperature below 1500 C., and wherein the flux material has a concentration in the conversion element between at least 0.01 wt % and at most 1 wt %.

Material, use thereof and method to manufacture said material; wherein the material is porous and has: a total porosity ranging from 50% to 80%, in particular from 60% to 70%; interconnected pores; at least a part made of a hydrophilic material, in particular at least a part of the inner surfaces of the pores is made of a hydrophilic material; a permeability coefficient greater than 10.sup.6 m/sec; and wherein, in a given volume of the material, the total volume of pores with a diameter ranging from 0.1 m to approximately 0.3 nm is at least greater than 15% of the total volume of the pores, preferably it ranges from 15 to 36%.

In one aspect, sintered ceramic bodies are described herein which, in some embodiments, demonstrate improved resistance to wear and enhanced cutting lifetimes. For example, a sintered ceramic body comprises tungsten carbide (WC) in an amount of 40-95 weight percent, alumina in an amount of 5-30 weight percent and ditungsten carbide (W.sub.2C) in an amount of at least 1 weight percent.

An optical wavelength conversion member and a light-emitting device including the optical wavelength conversion member. The optical wavelength conversion member (9) is formed of a ceramic sintered body having a fluorescent phase containing fluorescent crystal grains as a main component and a translucent phase containing translucent crystal grains as a main component. Crystal grains of the fluorescent phase have a composition represented by formula A.sub.3B.sub.5O.sub.12:Ce, where the element A is selected from Sc, Y, and lanthanoids (except for Ce), and the element B is selected from Al and Ga. In the optical wavelength conversion member (9), 0.3<a<34 and 300 m<y<1,050 m are satisfied, wherein a represents the area ratio of the translucent phase to the fluorescent phase in a cross section of the optical wavelength conversion member (9), and y represents the interfacial length of the fluorescent phase.

The present invention relates to an oxide sintered material that can be used suitably as a sputtering target for forming an oxide semiconductor film using a sputtering method, a method of producing the oxide sintered material, a sputtering target including the oxide sintered material, and a method of producing a semiconductor device 10 including an oxide semiconductor film 14 formed using the oxide sintered material.

The present invention relates to an oxide sintered material that can be used suitably as a sputtering target for forming an oxide semiconductor film using a sputtering method, a method of producing the oxide sintered material, a sputtering target including the oxide sintered material, and a method of producing a semiconductor device 10 including an oxide semiconductor film 14 formed using the oxide sintered material.

A sputtering target contains an oxide sinter that contains indium (In) element, tin element (Sn), zinc element (Zn), X element and oxygen, that further contains a spinel structure compound represented by Zn.sub.2SnO.sub.4, and that satisfies a formula (1) representing an atomic ratio of the elements.

0.001X/(In+Sn+Zn+X)0.05(1)

In the formula (1), In, Zn, Sn, and X represent contents of the In element, Zn element, Sn element, and X element in the oxide sinter, respectively, and the X element is at least one element selected from Ge, Si, Y, Zr, Al, Mg, Yb and Ga.

There is provided a platy zinc oxide sintered compact containing 0.80 wt % or less at least one first dopant element selected from the group consisting of Al, Ga and In, the balance consisting essentially of ZnO and optionally at least one second dopant element selected from the group consisting of Br, Cl, F, Sn, Y, Pr, Ge, B, Sc, Si, Ti, Zr, Hf, Mn, Ta, W, Cu, Ni, Cr, La, Gd, Bi, Ce, Sr and Ba, the second dopant element being optional component, wherein the (002)-plane orientation in the plate surface is 60% or more. The zinc oxide sintered compact of the present invention has excellent properties such as high orientation in addition to transparency and conductivity.

The present invention provides a carbon-silicon composite material suitable (e.g., high capacity; small irreversible capacity; long cycle life) to be used as a negative electrode material for battery. The carbon-silicon composite material comprises a carbon black and a silicon particle, wherein the carbon black and the silicon particle are bound via a resin thermolysis product.