Spectral Features of Lead Arsenate Glasses Doped with Copper Oxide

Abstract

Lead arsenate glasses containing different concentrations of CuO ranging from 0 to 1.5 mol% (in steps of 0.3 mol%) were prepared by melt quenching method. Further, samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) and differential scanning calorimetric analysis (DSC). A number of studies viz., optical absorption, luminescence and FTIR spectra also have been carried out on these glasses. XRD and SEM studies have confirmed that the prepared samples are of amorphous in nature. DSC results indicate the more structural degree of disorder for glass containing 1.5 mol% of CuO. From the IR spectra, it is observed that the intensity of bands due to ν1, ν2, ν3 and ν4 and vibrations of AsO3 group seems to be decreasing with shifting of the metacentres towards slightly higher wavenumber. The optical absorption and luminescence studies have indicated that copper exist in both the valence states viz., Cu+ and Cu2+. Finally the analyses of all results indicate that there will be growing degree of structural disorder with increase in the content of CuO. Keywords: Arsenate glasses, copper oxidation, optical absorption, luminescence