Physical, structural and radiation absorption characteristics for some Eu3+ doped heavy metal oxide phosphate glasses

Europium doped phosphate glasses were synthesized by employing melt-quench technique. Structural characterizations were determined from XRD and FTIR Spectroscopy. XRD patterns revealed the amorphous structure of the synthesized glasses. The formation of phosphate structural units were confirmed from FTIR analysis. The effect of addition of heavy metal oxide (HMO) on physical properties viz density (rho), molar volume (V-m), oxygen molar volume (V-o), oxygen packing density (OPD) and Polaron radius (r(p)) were studied. The rho and V-m of the synthesized glasses shows an increasing trend with an incorporation of HMOs as per their atomic number. The mechanical characterizations viz. packing factor (V-t), total dissociation energy per unit volume (G(t)), Young's modulus (E), Bulk modulus (K), Shear modulus (S), Poisson's ratio (mu), longitudinal modulus (L) and hardness (H) of the synthesized glasses were obtained using Makishima and Mackenzie (MM) model. Photon interaction characterizations for the glasses were obtained using Monte Carlo simulation code FLUKA and also using WinXCom database. The neutron shielding characteristics for the glasses were obtained for thermal as well as fast neutrons. Further, the effect of HMOs on different properties have been discussed to check the feasibility of glasses in radiation shielding and sensing applications.