Fabrication of Textured Si 3 N 4 Ceramics by Slip Casting in a High Magnetic Field

Developing the texture of ceramics is one of the effective ways for improving properties. Although the magnetic susceptibility of nonmagnetic materials is very small, there is a possibility to control the crystal orientation using a high magnetic field due to a magnetic anisotropy. In this study, Si 3 N 4 ceramics were manufactured by a slip‐casting process under high magnetic field and pressureless sintering. The texture of Si 3 N 4 ceramics was studied using X‐ray diffraction and scanning electron micrographs of polished and plasma‐etched specimens. It has been found that most of the a,b ‐axes texture of β‐Si 3 N 4 grains aligned to the magnetic field direction.