Alumina (Al2O3)-based ceramics find extensive industrial applications owing to a number of desirable properties which mainly include low density, high compressive strength, wear resistance, and electrical and thermal insulation properties . A combination of good compressive properties of high-purity Al2O3 along with biocompatibility makes Al2O3 ceramic a potential candidate for dental and orthopaedic applications . On the other hand, laser additive manufacturing (AM) techniques (especially laser AM techniques) are based on a layer by layer deposition of materials, which leads to a large-scale microstructural heterogeneity and formation of cracks (due to thermal stresses) in the deposited layers - . However, for the aforementioned AM techniques, the material (to be deposited) needs to possess a good fracture toughness so that it does not fracture due to the formation of cracks during the layerwise deposition , - . The main limitation of Al2O3 ceramics is the low fracture toughness which restricts the application of laser-based AM techniques in these ceramics .