Terbium doped yttrium aluminum garnet (Tb:YAG) transparent ceramics with different doping concentrations were fabricated by the solid-state reaction method using commercial Y2O3, alpha-Al2O3 and Tb4O7 powders as raw materials. Samples sintered at 1750 degrees C for 20 h were utilized to observe the optical transmittance, microstructure and fluorescence characteristics. It is found that all the Tb: YAG ceramics with different doping concentrations exhibit homogeneous structures with grain size distributions around 22-29 mu m. For the 5 at% Tb:YAG transparent ceramics, the grain boundaries are clean with no secondary phases. The photoluminescence spectra show that Tb:YAG ceramics emit predominantly at 544 nm originated from the energy levels transition of D-5(4)-> F-7(5) of Tb3+ ions, and the intensity of the emission peak reaches a maximum value when the Tb3+ concentration is 5 at%. The in-line transmittance of the 5 at% Tb:YAG ceramics is 73.4% at the wavelength of 544 nm, which needs to be further enhanced by optimizing the fabrication process. We think that Tb:YAG transparent ceramics may have potential applications in the high-power white LEDs. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd and Techna Group S.r.l. All rights reserved.