https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/s13360-025-07261-5
Regular Article
Enhanced radiation shielding through tunable physical, structural, and optical properties of BaO- and Er2O3-modified bismuth-borate glasses
1
Department of Physics, Shri Shripadbodh Swamiji Government First Grade College, 591312, Mudalagi, Karnataka, India
2
Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, University of Tabuk, 71491, Tabuk, Saudi Arabia
3
Department of Physics, School of Basic and Applied Sciences, MGM University, 431003, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Maharashtra, India
4
Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, Isra University, Amman, Jordan
5
Department of Physics, Dogus University, Dudullu-Ümraniye, 34775, Istanbul, Turkey
a
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b
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Received:
9
October
2025
Accepted:
27
December
2025
Published online:
20
January
2026
Abstract
In this work, we employed melt-quenching procedure to synthesize BaO- and Er2O3-doped bismuth-borate glasses to explore how varying BaO and Er₂O₃ affected their physical, structural, optical, and radiation shielding characteristics. Density and molar volume increased with higher BaO and Er₂O₃ due to replacing lighter B₂O₃ with heavier ions, which expanded the glass network through the creation of non-bridging oxygens. FTIR showed structural changes, with BO4 units converting to BO3 and disrupted borate networks from BaO addition. Optically, absorption from Er3+ intra-4f transitions intensified with more dopant, lowering transmittance and optical band gaps. The reduced band gap (3.031 to 2.863 eV for direct and 2.622 to 2.423 eV for indirect) and increased Urbach energy (0.260 to 0.301 eV) indicated more structural disorder and localized states. Refractive index and polarizability rose due to greater NBO formation. Due to Ba (Z = 56), Er (Z = 68), and Bi (Z = 83), all samples (20Ba0Er to 26Ba3Er) showed significant increases in GMAC at photon energies around 2, 4, and 10 keV. At 0.015 MeV, 26Ba3Er had the highest GMAC (66.937 cm2/g), lowest GHVL (0.0020 cm), GTVL (0.0067 cm), and shortest GMFP (0.0029 cm), indicating excellent shielding. Increasing BaO and Er2O3 raised gamma attenuation by increasing density from 4.702 to 5.122 g/cm3. The 20Ba0Er sample, richest in B2O3 (65 mol%), had the highest neutron attenuation (ΣR = 0.11274 cm−1), while 26Ba3Er had the lowest (ΣR = 0.11264 cm−1). Thus, B2O3-rich glasses excel in thermal and fast neutron shielding, whereas in mixed radiation fields BaO- and Er2O3-rich glasses are better for gamma shielding.
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© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Società Italiana di Fisica and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2026
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
