Effect of BaO doping on the structural and optical properties of some cerium-copper sodium borate glasses

This work has been performed to estimate the effect of BaO doping on the structural and optical properties of sodium borate-based glass, which contains an equal concentrations of both the cerium and copper oxides. The traditional fast cooling method was followed to obtain the desired glasses, by adding different content of BaO to the components of the cerium/copper sodium borate glass. The X-ray patterns as well as SEM/EDX imaging reflected the amorphous nature of the prepared solids, while FTIR spectra revealed the existence of the two basic structural groups of borate glass (BO3 and BO4) for the both Ba-free and Ba-doped samples. When the BaO content was raised, FTIR also revealed the presence of the distinct structural group of cerium tetrahedral CeO4. BaO content showed an impact on the values of the bulk density, the direct/indirect energy gaps, and the optical conductivity, where when BaO was increased the values of both density and optical conductivity decreased while those of the energy gaps increased. The Drude-Lorentz model has been used to simulate the optical conductivities of the studied glasses. The optical conductivity reached its maximum value at 1430 THz in the high-energy region. The simulation process is supported by the terahertz band communications parameters matched with the previous studies. The obtained materials can be used in the terahertz band. The intensity of ESR spectra increased when BaO increased, which means an increase in the paramagnetic centers throughout the host BaO-rich glassy sample.