Investigation of gamma-attenuation and optical behavior in La-doped phosphate glasses for electronic shielding materials

Phosphate glasses with a composition of 60 P 2 O 5 -20 Li 2 O-15ZnO- 5Bi 2 O 3 and (60-( x +0.5)) P 2 O 5 -20 Li 2 O-15ZnO- 5Bi 2 O 3 - 0.5 Er 2 O 3 - x La 2 O 3 with x = 0:1 mol% were formed via a quick melt-quench process in addition to casting. The produced phosphate glass samples exhibit a rise in density as well as molar volume upon substitution of P 2 O 5 with a specific ratio of Er 2 O 3 and La 2 O 3 . The UV–visible domain absorption spectra were analyzed to determine optical characteristics of the manufactured glasses. The Davis-Mott method is employed to find the Urbach energy and optical energy band gaps. The refractive index of each created glass sample is also evaluated, and these results are used to calculate the corresponding molar refraction, the metallization criterion and non-linear optical susceptibilities of all samples, using the appropriate formulae. Phy-X/PSD software was utilized to compute the mass attenuation coefficient (MAC) and linear attenuation coefficient (LAC) throughout an energy range of 0.01–15 MeV. Additionally, LAC was detected experimentally at particular energies, and there was good agreement between both experimental and theoretical findings. The accuracy of the findings was confirmed by the same outcomes that both methods produced. Furthermore, transmission factors (TF), radiation protection efficiency (RPE), (half- and tenth-value layers HVL, and TVL were estimated to evaluate the shielding effectiveness of the glass samples. As the quantity of rare earth oxides in mol% increased, radiation shielding items declared a notable enhancement, with an order of S4 > S3 > S2 > S2 > S1 found at all photon energies.