Abstract
The effect of Eu3+ ions on the linear and radiation shielding factors of zinc-borate tellurite glass doped with different contents of Eu2O3 with the form (25-x)ZnO–24B2O3–51TeO2-xEu2O3: x = 0 (E1), 0.5 (E2), 1 (E3), and 3 (E4) mol% have been investigated. The linear refractive index of the E1-E4 glasses varied from 2.48 to 2.54. The (Rmolar) increased from 20.809 (cm3/mol) for E1 glass to 21.040 (cm3/mol) for E4 glass, while the (Rloss) increased from 0.180 to 0.189. The (Mcriterion) varied from 0.279 to 0.268 for the investigated E1-E4 glasses. The (εstatic) varies from 6.150 to 6.451, while the (χ*) varied from 0.724 to 0.683. The mass attenuation coefficient (μ/ρ) was calculated via Phy-X/PSD program. At 0.284 MeV, the μ/ρ changes from 0.151 to 0.159 cm2/g, whereas, at 1.33 MeV, the μ/ρ increases from 0.0504 to 0.0506 cm2/g. Therefore, the (μ/ρ) obeys the trend: (μ/ρ)E1 < (μ/ρ)E2 < (μ/ρ)E3 < (μ/ρ)E4. The linear attenuation coefficient (LAC) has the same order reported for the MAC. The Zeff owns maximum values of 21.42, 21.69, 21.95 and 22.96 for E1, E2, E3 and E4 specimens, respectively (at 0.284 MeV). The HVL range of the chosen specimens at 0.284 MeV looks like: 1.122, 1.098, 1.075 and 0.991 cm for E1, E2, E3 and E4, respectively. Therefore, the HVL follows the trend: (HVL)E1 > (HVL)E2 > (HVL)E3 > (HVL)E4. Therefore, the increasing of Eu3+ ions in the investigated zinc-borate tellurite glasses leads to enhance of their linear optical and gamma-ray shielding factors. In addition, the E4 (3 mol% Eu2O3) glass sample owns better gamma ray's absorption properties compared with the rest of the investigated glasses intensively utilized in the protection against harmful gamma radiations.
•The radiation shielding factors ZnO–B2O3–TeO2-Eu2O3 system have been investigated.•The linear refractive index for the E1-E4 samples varied from 2.48 to 2.54.•The (Rmolar) increased from 20.809 (cm3/mol) for E1 to 21.040 (cm3/mol) for E4.•The HVL follows the trend: (HVL)E1 > (HVL)E2 > (HVL)E3 > (HVL)E4.