Exploration on dysprosium ions doped zinc barium boro-tellurite glasses towards radiation screening and photonic applications

Abstract

Dy3+ ions doped zinc barium Boro-tellurite glasses are prepared in the laboratory employing the melt quenching technique. The physical properties like density and refractive index are determined for each glass and found a progressive increase as moved from 0% to 40% of Zn content. This can be explained based on the formation of bridging oxygen (BO) and the proportional decline of the molar volume of the glasses. Structural parameters are evaluated to assess the nature of network bonding within the glasses. Molar volume of oxygen and Oxygen packing density values are contrasting. From this result, one can understand the creation of bridging or Non-bridging oxygen (BO/NBO) in the network. The obtained bond density values additionally support this information on oxygen lattice creation. The optical properties like optical bandgap, Urbach energy, and band tailing parameter are also obtained from the absorption spectra. Additionally, radiation shielding properties for the prepared glasses are investigated using Phy-X/PSD software. The radiation shielding parameters were demonstrated to have strong energy dependence at low energies. The effect of changing the proportion of barium and zinc content on the structural and radiation shielding properties is determined and well interpreted. Since the present glass is designed to be Pb-free, these glasses are non-toxic and eco-friendly. The results reveal the fact that the current glasses are more suitable for radiation protection applications. Also, the barium and zinc cations ratio's influence on the luminescence ability of the prepared glasses was explored through emission and luminescence decay measurements.