(Yb 0.05 Y 0.95 ) 2 O 3 transparent ceramics were fabricated by vacuum sintering technique using high purity Y 2 O 3 powder as starting material and ZrO 2 as additive. The results indicated that the introduce of ZrO 2 can improve the transmittance of yttria ceramics greatly and the mechanism was also analyzed. 3.0at.% ZrO 2 doped (Yb 0.05 Y 0.95 ) 2 O 3 transparent ceramics sintered at 1800°C for 20h had the optimum transmittance. The microstructure is uniform and no secondary phase is observed in the ceramics with the average grain size of 15μm. The relative density is 99.68% and the transmittance in near-infrared band is as high as 83.7% (up to 98.5% of theoretical value). The spectroscopic properties of 3.0at.% ZrO 2 doped (Yb 0.05 Y 0.95 ) 2 O 3 ceramics were also investigated. The absorption, emission cross-section and fluorescence lifetime have been estimated as 1.175×10 −20 , 1.767×10 −20 cm 2 and 0.93ms, respectively. All the results indicate that Yb 3+ doped Y 2 O 3 transparent ceramic is promising laser material.