Silver oxide embedded alkali zinc boro tellurite glasses: Physical, structural and optical properties for possible optical switching applications

A new set of alkali zinc boro tellurite glasses activated with silver oxide was prepared by the melt quenching method to investigate their suitability for significant applications in optical switching and optical device applications. The XRD is carried out to check the non-crystalline nature of the BTZNA glasses. The impact of the addition of Ag2O to the ZnO-B2O3-TeO2-Na2O glasses causes structural changes due to the interconversion of BO4 and BO3 units, which was noticed by FTIR and deconvoluted FTIR spectra, and FTIR is also evidence of the presence of TeO3+1 (polyhedral) and TeO3 (trigonal pyramid) units, Zn-O vibrations of ZnO4 units. Physical properties such as density, molar volume, polaron radius, and oxygen packing density were determined by using a suitable mathematical approach. The optical absorption of BTZNA glasses was performed by using UV-visible spectroscopy, and hence, important optical properties of the glasses like direct and indirect energy band gaps, Urbach energy, refractive index, metallization criterion, and optical basicity are calculated. The highest RI is observed as 2.222 for BTNAZ2 glasses. The indirect energy band gap of prepared glasses ranges from 3.22 eV to 3.26 eV. The observed physical, structural, and optical properties of the glasses show these glasses are potentially good materials for optical material and optical switching applications.