Rare earth Co-Doped tellurite glass ceramics: Potential use in optical and radiation shielding applications

Abstract

Six specimens of tellurite glass doped with rare earth with a nominal chemical composition 65TeO2–25Na2O-(10-x)NdCl3-xSm2O3: 0.0 ≤ x ≤ 2.5 mol% were fabricated. The fabrication process was conventional melt quenching. The glasses were coded as TNNS0.0 to TNNS2.5 corresponding to their x value. The glasses' non-crystalline properties were measured using X-ray diffraction. The glasses' UV–Vis data in a 300–1100 nm wavelength were calculated. Using absorption measurements, the optical energy band gap (EOptical) was assessed. The index of refraction (n), polarizability (αmolar), metallization criterion (Mcriterion), molar refractivity (Rmolar), static and optical dielectric constants (εstatic and εoptical), reflection loss (Rloss), and optical transmission (Toptical) were calculated. Results revealed that the indirect optical energy band gap (EIndirectOptical ) changed from 2.94 to 2.80 eV, while the direct one (EDirectOptical) changed from 3.06 to 3.00 eV for TNNS0.0 to TNNS2.5 glasses. Refractive index varied between 2.413 and 2.453. The static dielectric constant changed from 5.824 to 6.017. To inspect the glasses’ radiation shielding characteristics, we simulated their mass attenuation coefficients (MAC) between 0.284 and 1.33 MeV using Geant4 code simulation and Phy-X/PSD software. There was good agreement between the Geant4 and Phy-X/PSD results. The linear attenuation coefficient (μ) values decreased exponentially as the energy increased, ranging from 0.229 to 0.697 cm−1 for TNNS0.0 and 0.256–0.787 cm−1 for TNNS2.5. The addition of samarium oxide (Sm2O3) increased the μ values at all of the energies investigated. The effective atomic number (Zeff) results demonstrated higher photon interactions, possibility due to the increasing Sm2O3 content. The minimum half value layer (HVL) occurred at 0.284 MeV and was 0.881 cm for TNNS2.5and 0.994 cm for TNNS0.0. The tenth value layer (TVL) decreased as the Sm2O3 concentrations increased and increased as the energy increased. TNNS2.5 had the lowest TVL of 2.927 cm at 0.284 MeV and 6.022 cm at 0.662 MeV.