Effect of Er3+ on NaSrB glass: thermoluminescence and structural analysis

Abstract

The present work reports the investigations on $${\text {Er}}^{3+}$$ -doped sodium–strontium–borate glasses for their structural, optical and thermoluminescence (TL) properties. While the amorphous nature of the prepared glasses is confirmed by the powdered X-ray diffraction (XRD), some interesting features were found in the structure and Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) studies such as the nanocrystallization and the presence of $${\text {BO}}_3$$ and $${\text {BO}}_4$$ structural units. Some physical parameters such as ion concentration, polaron radius, inter-nuclear distance, and field strength are calculated and analyzed. Optical band gap was found to be sensitive to the concentration of the dopants. TL glow curve exhibits a single peak but it shifts with variation in concentration of $${\text {Er}}_2{\text {O}}_3$$ . Calculation of kinetic parameters show that the prepared glasses exhibit second-order kinetics. The effective atomic number $${\text {(Z}}_{\text{eff}})$$ of prepared glasses is also calculated which indicates their suitability for application in radiation dosimetry.