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Highly transparent 1 at.% Er: YAG ceramics was fabricated by a reactive sintering method under vacuum. The optical properties, the microstructure and the laser performance of the Er: YAG ceramics were investigated. The average grain size of the Er: YAG ceramics was 7~8 μm. The in-line transmittances of the Er: YAG ceramics at the wavelength of 1800 and 400 nm were about 84.6% and 82.4%, respectively. The absorption coefficient of the Er: YAG ceramics was 1.29 cm−1. The grain boundaries were very clean and no secondary phase was observed. When end-pumped by an Er, Yb-fiber laser at 1532 nm, a maximum output power of 13.8 W lasing at the wavelength of 1645 nm was obtained with a slope efficiency of 54.5%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]