The presented diploma thesis is focused on the preparation and properties of transparent polycrystalline ceramic materials based on Al2O3. Theoretically, the most important technological aspects of the processing of these materials are presented. Detailed attention is given to transparent Al2O3 polycrystalline ceramics doped with rare earth elements. The influence of microstructural parameters on the optical properties (represented by RIT) is investigated on Al2O3 samples doped and codoped with dysprosium, terbium and chromium. A significant effect of the average grain size on the light transmittance of all samples is observed. The highest RIT = 55 % (measured by a laser beam with a wavelength of 632,8 nm) was achieved by an optimized preparation process for a sample doped with 0,05 at. % of dysprosium. For all samples photoluminescent properties are also analysed. The photoluminescent emission spectra correspond to the activation of doping elements. In case of the terbium and chromium codoped samples, the differences in the activation of individual dopants depending on different excitation wavelengths were demonstrated, resulting in different colour emissions for different excitation wavelengths.