Optical properties and radiation shielding performance of tellurite glasses containing Li2O and MoO3

Abstract

Tellurite glasses own some unique properties that can serve human being developments in several applications. This research work aims to study the optical properties and radiation shielding performance of tellurite glasses containing Li2O and MoO3 described by the formula of xLi2O – (80–2x)TeO2 – (20+x)MoO3, where x = 0, 10, and 20 mol%. The results of the optical studies show that the optical transmission (T) of the studied glass samples increased from 1.21 to 1.42 as the Li2O content increased from 0 to 20 mol%. Such increase was associated with a clear decline in the values of the static dielectric constant of the samples. On the other hand, FLUKA simulation was extensively used to assess and test the radiation shieling performance for each sample involved. The findings of this part reveal that the attenuation factors (e.g. MACs) of LTM glasses varied from 0.038003 cm2/g to 0.16151 cm2/g for LTM-A, from 0.03813 to 0.15611 cm2/g for LTM-B and from 0.03825 cm2/g to 0.14948 cm2/g for LTM-C. Moreover, the transmission factors (e.g. HVLs) of the LTM glasses were minimum at 0.284 MeV with value of 0.814437 cm, 0.90430 cm and 1.03275 cm for LTM-A, LTM-B and LTM-C, respectively. Finally, a large scale comparison was achieved between the studied glass samples and the commercially available ones for several photon energies. This comparison confirmed the utility of using the present glass samples as transparent shielding materials in several applications whether this is in hospitals or any other technological facilities.