Yttrium aluminum garnet transparent ceramics with divalent or trivalent europium ion doping were prepared by vacuum sintering at 1780 °C. Refined XRD data confirmed the pure phase ceramic with little lattice expansion. The transmittance of the 1.1 mm thick blue color divalent europium doped sample was measured to be 61% at wavelength of 900 nm. The photoluminescence spectrum exhibited the typical broad emission related to divalent europium ions. Furthermore, the photoluminescence spectra of the samples with different europium doping concentration and different annealing temperature were compared. © 2013 Optical Society of America.