Synergistic effects of erbium and barium oxides on optical and gamma-ray shielding characteristic of boro-tellurite glasses

Abstract

A new boro-tellurite glass series doped with BaO and Er2O3 was fabricated according to the chemical formula of (21+x) BaO + 14Bi2O3 + (60-x-y) B2O3 + 5TeO2 + y Er2O3 for optical and radiation shielding applications, where y = 0, 1, 2, and 3 mol% and x = 0, 2, 4, and 6 mol%. The UV–Vis spectra for the prepared samples were detected using the spectrophotometer over a wavenumber interval of 300–1000 nm. Based on the absorption spectra, several factors related to the optical properties, including band gap, Urbach energy, refractive index, dielectric constant, reflection loss, optical transmission, and molar refraction, were computed. The increase in BaO–Er2O3 content throughout 21–30 mol% increases the refractive index from 2.445 to 2.520. Additionally, the impact of the substitution of B2O3 by BaO–Er2O3 on the radiation shielding properties of prepared glasses was examined over an energy interval of 0.015–15 MeV. The increase in BaO + Er2O3 across the concentration of 21–30 mol% raises the linear attention coefficient of prepared boro-tellurite glasses between 257.819 and 302.334 cm-1 at 0.015 MeV. The LAC enhancement is accompanied by a decreased thickness of the half-value layer, which reduced from 4.659 cm to 4.194 cm at 15 MeV when the BaO + Er2O3 concentrations raised throughout 21–30 mol%, respectively.