Abstract
Three systems of alkali borate glasses containing either 0.15% CuO or ZnO (mol. %) were prepared using melting–annealing technique. Some of the glasses optical, physical, and radiation shielding properties have been interpreted. The optical UV absorbance spectra show a good stability before and after gamma irradiation. Also, many of the glasses physical parameters have been calculated, such as optical energy band gap (
E
opt
), refractive index (
n
), optical transmittance coefficient (
T
), reflection loss (
R
L
), optical electronegativity (
X
), metallizatioxn criterion (
M
Criterion
), static dielectric constant(
ε
Static
), and optical dielectric constant (
ε
Optical
). The efficiency of the glasses as radiation shielding materials has been by simulated and discussed by Monte Carlo code (MCNP-5) and calculated theoretically by Phy-X/PSD program, such as linear attenuation coefficient LAC (
µ
, cm
−1
), mass attenuation coefficient (
μ
/
ρ
), half-value layer (HVL), and fast neutron removal cross-section (FNRCS, ∑
R
(cm
−1
)). The glasses show close efficiency to shield radiation; however, the difference depends on the significant variation in molecular weight (MW) of the introduced transition metal ion and the effective atomic number of the prepared glasses.