Abstract
In this paper, we studied the gamma photon attenuation properties for different germanate glasses systems with composition Sb2O3–GeO2–SiO2–Al2O3, TeO2–WO3–GeO2, GeO2–TeO2/SiO2–PbO–CaO–Tm2O3 and B2O3–GeO2–Gd2O3–Eu2O3–GdF3–BaF2. The mass attenuation coefficients (μ/ρ) for the selected germanate glasses were calculated at different energies (between 0.015 MeV and 15 MeV) using the MCNPX code. The calculated MCNPX μ/ρ values then compared with the WinXCom data to check the accuracy in the results. The results showed that the Sb2O3 replacement by SiO2 causes a decrease in μ/ρ for Sb2O3–GeO2–SiO2–Al2O3 glass system. Also, it is found that for TeO2–WO3–GeO2 glass system, μ/ρ decreases as GeO2 content increases from 1 to 20 mol%. While for GeO2–TeO2/SiO2–PbO–CaO–Tm2O3 glass system, the results revealed that the glass samples contain TeO2 possess higher μ/ρ values than the samples contain SiO2. For the B2O3–GeO2–Gd2O3–Eu2O3–GdF3–BaF2 glasses, we found that the μ/ρ values decrease as BaF2 is increased from 0 to 15 mol%. Moreover, it is found that 50Sb-0Ge for series 1, TWG0 for series 2, 2G4T for series 3 and X = 0 for series 4 glass samples among the studied glasses have the highest effective atomic number values. On the basis of the results achieved, 50Sb-0Ge, TWG0, 2G4T and X = 0 samples have the best radiation shielding characteristics among the selected glasses.
•Radiation shielding characteristics of different germanate glasses have been investigated.•The μ/ρ for the selected germanate glasses was evaluated by MCNPX simulation code at different energies.•The HVL results for the present germanate glasses suggested that the gamma photons absorption capacity increases as the density of the sample increases.