Er3+/Nd3+ ions reinforced lead-borate glasses: an extensive investigation of physical, linear optical characteristics, and photon shielding capacity

An extensive investigation of physical, linear optical, photoluminescence characteristics, and photon shielding capacity of lead-borate glasses 50B(2)O(3)-20PbO-30CaO (S1) and Er3+ and Nd3+ ions reinforced 50B(2)O(3)-20PbO-30CaO-0.5Er(2)O(3)-x (Nd2O3): x = 0.25, 0.50, 0.75, 1.0, 1.25, and 1.50 mol% (S2-S7) glasses was introduced in this study. All synthesized glasses were in non-crystalline nature. The density was slightly decreased from rho(S1) = 3.757 to rho(S7) = 3.646 gm/cm(3) for samples S1 and S7. The indirect optical energy band was decreased from 3.20 to 3.02 eV and the refractive index was increased from 2.345 to 2.39. The maximum mass attenuation coefficient values were found at 0.015 MeV; 52.411, 53.406, 53.530, 53.653, 53.773, 53.892, and 54.008 cm(2)/g respectively for S1, S2, S3, S4, S5, S6, and S7. The effective atomic number (Z(eff)) increases with an increase in photon energy (E) varying from 61.04 to 23.54 for the S7 glass sample with the highest shielding efficacies. Hence S7 is the best photon shield amongst the investigated glasses due to its high mass attenuation coefficient, and high effective atomic number. (C) 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V.