Effect of bismuth oxide on the optical features and gamma shielding efficiency of lithium zinc borate glasses

This paper reports the effect of bismuth oxide (up to 65 mol%) on the optical properties and radiation shielding efficiency of xBi(2)O(3)-(65-x)Li2O-20ZnO- 15B(2)O(3) glasses (where x = 45, 50, 55, 60, and 65 mol%). The optical properties of these glasses were examined by evaluating different parameters such as molar refraction (R-m), metallization principle (M), molar polarizability (alpha(m)), dielectric coefficients (static and optical), optical transmission (T), and reflection loss (R-L). On the other hand, the radiation shielding efficiency of the tested glasses was estimated by using Geant4 simulations and the Phy-X/PSD program for varied photons energies. The linear attenuation coefficient (mu) and other related factors such as half value layer (HVL), effective atomic number (Z(eff)), and mean free path (MFP) were calculated over a wide energy range from 15 keV to 15 MeV. The results revealed that the optical dielectric constant of the glasses increased from 3.1469 to 3.2076 as the Bi2O3 increased from 45 to 65 mol%. A notable increase in II values was observed as the Bi2O3 increased from 45 to 65 mol%. The photon shielding properties of the tested glasses were compared with many samples in terms of MFP. The present glasses showed superior features to apply for optical and radiation shielding applications.