Sintered body

1 . A sintered material having a phase of rare earth element oxyfluoride as a main phase, wherein

the sintered material has properties including:

an L* value of 75 or more and less than 90, an a* value of −1 to 3, and a b* value of −1 to 3 in an L*a*b* color space;

a three-point flexural strength of 110 MPa or more; and

a relative density of 98% or more, and

crystal grains of the sintered material have an average grain size of 10 μm or less.

2 . The sintered material as set forth in claim 1 , wherein

the sintered material contains oxygen and has an oxygen content of 13% by mass or less.

3 . The sintered material as set forth in claim 1 , for use in a halogen-containing dry etching gas atmosphere.

4 . The sintered material as set forth in claim 1 , wherein

the sintered material has a phase of rare earth element fluoride as a sub phase.

5 . The sintered material as set forth in claim 4 , wherein

a peak height of a peak assigned to a (020) plane of the rare earth element fluoride is from 5 to 70%, based on a peak height of a main peak assigned to the phase of the rare earth element oxyfluoride.

6 . The sintered material as set forth in claim 1 , wherein the rare earth element oxyfluoride is represented by LnO x F y , where 0.3≤x≤1.7 and 0.1≤y≤1.9, and

the sintered material has a rare earth element fluoride that is represented by LnF 3 .

7 . The sintered material as set forth in claim 1 , wherein

the three-point flexural strength of the sintered material is 500 MPa or less.

8 . The sintered material as set forth in claim 1 , wherein

relative to a main peak assigned to a phase of the rare earth oxyfluoride, a peak height of a largest peak attributable to a component in the sintered material other than a compound containing Ln and F in the sintered material is 10% or less.

9 . The sintered material as set forth in claim 1 , wherein

the average crystal grain size is 5 μm or less.