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Thin films of semiconductor Se80Ge20-xAgx (x = 0, 3, 6, 9, 12 and 15 at.%) were deposited by the thermal evaporation technology. Through optical and electrical characterization, the influence of the Ag ratio on the photoelectric parameters of Se–Ge thin film was studied. The X-ray diffraction pattern showed the amorphous nature of the deposited films as well as the polycrystalline state when the films were annealed at the maximum crystallization temperature (415 K), which was determined by the first derivative of the resistivity curve with respect to temperature. The crystallization kinetics of the film was extracted from the electrical analysis by measuring the change in resistivity with temperature. The electrical results of the thin film showed three regions; namely, amorphous, extended (crystalline) and hopping. In the extended and hopping states, the activation energy and pre-exponential factors were calculated. The optical constants, extinction coefficient and refractive index were calculated using the transmittance and reflectance of the grown Se80Ge20-xAgx films. The energy gaps of the films were estimated in the strong absorption regions. The changes in the bandgap energy of the film by thermal annealing can help to produce materials with acceptable band gaps for use as absorber layers in solar cell applications. Also, the results provide microscopic insights and studies on the structure, electr-othermal and optical properties of Ag metal-doped GeSe as a back contact of solar cells.

The primary aim of this investigation is to synthesize a novel glass system with a composition (35+x) PbO-5TeO2-20Bi2O3-(20-x) MgO-20B2O3 (where x=0, 5, 10, 15, and 20 mol%) by melt quenching method. The confirmation of the amorphous behavior and the presence of the various vibration modes and stretching modes have been analyzed using the XRD and FTIR techniques, respectively. The radiation shielding parameters of these glasses were reported using MCNP5 simulation. The effects of PbO on the MCNP5 parameters were investigated in detail. The mass attenuation coefficient (MAC) was simulated via MCNP5 code, and it was found that the MAC values from MCNP5 all follow the same trend as the XCOM data. The similarity means that the two simulations strongly agree with each other. The linear attenuation coefficient (LAC) was calculated for all the glasses. The glass sample with 55 mol% of the PbO has the greatest LAC at any energy, such as 0.317 at 10 MeV, the lowest investigated energy. From the LAC values, other parameters such as transmission factor (TF), lead equivalent thickness (dlead), and half-value layer (HVL) were reported. The results for the TF of the glasses revealed that the glass systems become more effective as their thickness increases. Glass sample with 35 mol % of the PbO recorded the highest TF at all energies due to its lack of PbO content, such as 15.533% for a thickness of 1 cm and 6.122% for 1.5-cm thickness at 0.3 MeV. The radiation protection efficiency (RPE) was also determined, and we found that the glasses with the greater PbO content and least MgO content have the highest RPE. Therefore, based on the RPE values, glasses with the greater PbO are the most effective radiation shield from the investigated glasses. © 2021, Australian Ceramic Society. This research was funded by the Deanship of Scientific Research at Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University through the Fast-Track Research Funding Program.

We fabricated pure kesterite Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS) nanocrystals for solar cells by solvothermal synthesis. We investigated the effects of 0.5–2 mg/mL glycine complexing agent on the nanocrystals’ properties by comprehensive spectroscopic and microscopic analysis, focusing on structural, morphological, compositional, and chemical properties. By controlling the glycine concentration, we obtained complete single-phase nanocrystals: high purity, good crystallinity, and copper-poor and Zn-rich composition. The nanocrystal diameter ranged ~50–60 nm. Thin films based on the nanocrystals were smooth, compact, free of cracks and holes, and had a grain size of up to 2.8 μm. The nanocrystals have an optical band gap between 1.51 and 2.27 eV and an absorption coefficient greater than 104 cm−1. The nanocrystal properties indicate promise for high-efficiency CZTS solar cells.

The role of Er3+ ions on the optical properties and radiation shielding features of (55-x)B2O3–10SiO2−25Gd2O3–10CaO−xEr2O3: (Er-glasses) with x = 0 (Er-0.0) to 2.5 (Er-2.5) mol% glasses was investigated. The Metallization criterion (Mcriterion) was found to vary from 0.5356 to 0.5346, while the static dielectric constant (estatic) varied from 2.7340 to 2.7406 for Er-0.0 to Er-2.5 glasses. The optical electronegativity (χ*) decreased from 0.9085 to 0.8440, the nonlinear refractive index ( n 2 o p t i c a l ) increased from 1.4075 × 10−12 to 1.4274 × 10−12 (esu), and the nonlinear optical susceptibility (χ3) increased from 6.1765 × 10−14 to 6.2714 × 10−14 (esu) with increasing Er2O3 from 0 to 2.5 mol%. The mass attenuation coefficient (MAC) for the Er-glasses has been calculated via the Phy-X/PSD program. The highest MAC was found at 0.284 MeV, and was equal to 0.197 cm2/g for Er-0.0, 0.199 cm2/g for Er-0.5, 0.200 cm2/g for Er-1.0, 0.201 cm2/g for Er-1.5, 0.202 cm2/g for Er-2.0 and 0.204 cm2/g for Er-2.5. The linear attenuation coefficient (LAC) has the following order: (Er-2.5)LAC > (Er-2.0)LAC > (Er-1.5)LAC > (Er-1.0)LAC > (Er-0.5)LAC> (Er-0.0)LAC. The RPE for the Er-2.5 glass was found to increase from 35.06% (for x = 0.5 cm) to 82.20% (for x = 2 cm) at 0.284 MeV. At the selected energies, the transmission factor (TF) decreased with the addition of Er2O3. The half value layer (HVL) of the Er-0.0-Er2.5 samples tended to decrease with the increase in Er2O3 content. The tenth value layer (TVL) decreased from 2.919 to 2.667 cm at 0.284 MeV as the Er2O3 increases from 0 to 2.5 mol%, while at 0.511 MeV it decreased from 5.771 to 5.377 cm. The results revealed that the Er-glasses can be applied for optical and radiation shielding uses.

This work aims to report the radiation shielding ability of WO3–ZnO–PbO–B2O3 glasses and to understand the effect of WO3 on the shielding behavior of this glass system. Geant4 code was applied to calculate the mass attenuation coefficient between 0.1218 and 1.458 MeV. The Phys-X software was used to validate the simulation results. Decrease in the transmission factor (TF) for the selected glasses with an increase in the thickness of the glass from 0.2 to 1 cm has been noticed and discussed. The maximum TF for the glass with composition of 20PbO-80B2O3 occurred for 0.2 cm thickness and equals to 0.44 at 0.1218 MeV and 0.966 at 1.086 MeV. Whereas, the maximum TF for 10WO3-10ZnO-20PbO-60B2O3 sample with a thickness of 0.2 cm varied between 0.256 and 0.95. The TF results emphasize the fact that the sample's power to attenuate the photons becomes weaker with the increase in the energy of the photon. The radiation protection efficiency (RPE) increases with the increase in the thickness of the glass and the amount of WO3. The replacement of 20 mol % of ZnO by 10 mol % of WO3 leads to the increase in the RPE from 8.83 to 12.03% at x = 0.4 cm, from 16.89 to 22.61% at x = 0.8 cm and from 20.64 to 27.42% at x = 1 cm. At 0.444 MeV, the linear attenuation coefficient (LAC) increases by 1.52 due to the increase in the density by 1.46, which indicated that if the density of the glass is doubled, the LAC almost doubles, and the WZPB7 glass with highest density attenuates more photons.

Six glass samples with the composition of TeO2-Li2O-ZnO were analyzed for their radiation shielding properties. The radiation shielding factors for the lithium-zinc-tellurite glasses were reported using the Geant4 code and Phy-X/PSD program. The transmission factor (TF) was determined for different thicknesses and the results revealed that the TF decreases with increasing the thickness of the glass. For TeLiZ1, increasing the thickness of the sample from 0.4 cm to 1.6 cm led to decrease the transmission of the photon from 0.84 to 0.48 at 0.5 MeV and from 0.94 to 0.76 at 4 MeV. The radiation protection efficiency (RPE) results showed that a thicker glass sample absorbs a higher number of photons, implying that lower radiation pass among the glass, increasing RPE. Also, the glass coded as TeLiZ6 has higher RPE than that of TeLiZ1 glass which suggests that at higher content of TeO2 (85 mol%), the more efficient the glass is at shielding the incoming photons. The linear attenuation coefficient (LAC) obtained by both methods (Geant4 and Phy-X/PSD showed a good agreement for all the glasses and at all investigated energies. The LAC indicates a strong energy dependence, especially at low energies. The LAC also increases as more TeO2 is added to the glasses. TeLiZ6 (85TeO2-15Li2O, ρ = 5.164 g/cm3) has the highest RPE and lowest TF, while TeLiZ1 (60TeO2-15Li2O-25ZnO, ρ = 4.976 g/cm3) has the lowest RPE and highest TF. The tenth value layer (TVL) was also determined and it was observed that TVL increases with increasing energy, reaching a maximum value at 10 MeV and varying between 12.919 and 13.808 cm. By contrast, the minimum TVL is reported at 15 keV and varies between 0.0106 and 0.0112 cm. The addition of TeO2 decreases the TVL, with TeLiZ6 having the least TVL.

In the present investigation, we successfully synthesized Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS) nanoparticles via solvothermal method with different sulfur sources at 240 °C for 14 h. The experimental results show that the different sulfur sources caused unique and significant changes in the material properties. The synthesized products were investigated by XRD. Raman spectroscopy revealed that the crystallinity improved and kesterite structures with no secondary phases formed. The TEM results showed that the morphological features of the prepared CZTS nanoparticles had an average particle size of 40 nm and confirmed the nanoparticles' crystallinity. The FESEM results demonstrated that the CZTS nanoparticles had thin films with dense, uniform, and smooth surfaces with grain sizes in a range of 2–4 μm. The CZTS nanoparticles’ optical band gaps were 1.51 eV. XPS was used to investigate the oxidation state of elements in a sample prepared using thiourea. Photovoltaic devices with SLG/Mo/CZTS/CdS/i-ZnO/ZnO:Al structures exhibited3.56% efficiency via CZTS thin film-based nanoparticles prepared using thiourea.

Six specimens of tellurite glass doped with rare earth with a nominal chemical composition 65TeO2–25Na2O-(10-x)NdCl3-xSm2O3: 0.0 ≤ x ≤ 2.5 mol% were fabricated. The fabrication process was conventional melt quenching. The glasses were coded as TNNS0.0 to TNNS2.5 corresponding to their x value. The glasses' non-crystalline properties were measured using X-ray diffraction. The glasses' UV–Vis data in a 300–1100 nm wavelength were calculated. Using absorption measurements, the optical energy band gap ( E Optical ) was assessed. The index of refraction (n), polarizability (αmolar), metallization criterion (Mcriterion), molar refractivity (Rmolar), static and optical dielectric constants (estatic and eoptical), reflection loss (Rloss), and optical transmission (Toptical) were calculated. Results revealed that the indirect optical energy band gap ( E I n d i r e c t O p t i c a l ) changed from 2.94 to 2.80 eV, while the direct one ( E D i r e c t O p t i c a l ) changed from 3.06 to 3.00 eV for TNNS0.0 to TNNS2.5 glasses. Refractive index varied between 2.413 and 2.453. The static dielectric constant changed from 5.824 to 6.017. To inspect the glasses’ radiation shielding characteristics, we simulated their mass attenuation coefficients (MAC) between 0.284 and 1.33 MeV using Geant4 code simulation and Phy-X/PSD software. There was good agreement between the Geant4 and Phy-X/PSD results. The linear attenuation coefficient (μ) values decreased exponentially as the energy increased, ranging from 0.229 to 0.697 cm−1 for TNNS0.0 and 0.256–0.787 cm−1 for TNNS2.5. The addition of samarium oxide (Sm2O3) increased the μ values at all of the energies investigated. The effective atomic number (Zeff) results demonstrated higher photon interactions, possibility due to the increasing Sm2O3 content. The minimum half value layer (HVL) occurred at 0.284 MeV and was 0.881 cm for TNNS2.5and 0.994 cm for TNNS0.0. The tenth value layer (TVL) decreased as the Sm2O3 concentrations increased and increased as the energy increased. TNNS2.5 had the lowest TVL of 2.927 cm at 0.284 MeV and 6.022 cm at 0.662 MeV.

Phy-X/PSD software was applied to understand the gamma photon shielding characteristics of SeO2–Ag2O–TeO2 glass systems. The highest attenuation coefficients occurred at 15 keV (between 39.576 and 48.978 cm2/g) and the lowest at 15 MeV (between 0.0369 and 0.0392 cm2/g). The results showed that the attenuation factors highly depended on the concentration of TeO2, and μ/ρ increased as TeO2 changed from 28 to 70 mol%. The maximum effective atomic number values were between 15 keV and 0.08 MeV and the values at 0.04 MeV were 45.81, 46.55, 47.23, 47.84, 48.91, and 49.38 for SeAgTe1, SeAgTe2, SeAgTe3, SeAgTe4, SeAgTe5, and SeAgTe6, respectively. From the half value thickness results, the SeAgTe6 had the lowest HVT, and thus the best attenuation. The worst attenuation was found for the SeAgTe1, which had the least amount of TeO2 and the lowest density (ρ = 5.66 g cm-3). The results also revealed that there was a rapid increase in the tenth value layer (TVL) for all of the glasses up to 1 MeV as the energy increased, and then the TVL increased at a slower rate. The TVL also confirmed that the attenuation competence of the glasses increased when the TeO2 content increased from 28 mol% to 70 mol%. The attenuation of the SeAgTe1–SeAgTe6 glasses was much better than that of ilmenite, steel-magnetite concrete, and RS-360 glass, since these glasses had lower mean free paths, whereas the attenuation properties of the RS-520 glass were comparable to the SeAgTe3.

In this work, with the help of Phy-X/PSD software, we studied the radiation shielding characteristics of 25Sb2O3–30PbO–(45−y) B2O3–yGd2O3 glasses (with y = 0, 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8 and 1.0 mol%). The mass attenuation coefficient (μ/ρ) shows a progressive reduction with increase of energy, which denotes that the shielding efficiency of the PbSbBGd0- PbSbBGd1 glasses reduces when the energy was increased. The μ/ρ at 284 keV takes the values between 0.25988 and 0.26022 cm2/g and reduces to 0.18658 cm2/g (for PbSbBGd0) and 0.18673 (for PbSbBGd1) cm2/g at 347 keV. In addition, reasonable elevation in the linear attenuation factor (μ) values was observed with the addition of Gd2O3. This implies that, an improvement in the gamma rays shielding characteristics has occurred with the addition of Gd2O3. PbSbBGd1 sample had the largest μ values compared to all other glasses and equal to 1.418, 1.018, 0.401, 0.297 and 0.220 cm-1 at 284, 347, 826, 1275 and 2506 keV respectively. The results show that the replacement of B2O3 by Gd2O3 increases the effective atomic number (Zeff) for the PbO–Sb2O3–B2O3–Gd2O3 glass system and the Zeff of PbSbBGd1 is higher than that of PbSbBGd0- PbSbBGd0.8 samples, whereas that of PbSbBGd0 is the lowest. The mean free path (MFP) shows strong energy dependence and becomes larger at higher energies. The MFP shows gradual decrease, as the content of Gd2O3 was increased at the expense of B2O3 which implies that radiation attenuation features for the PbSbBGd0- PbSbBGd1 specimen have improved with more amount of Gd2O3. The least half value layer (HVL) is found at 284 keV for all concentrations of Gd2O3 and equals to 0.537 cm (for PbSbBGd0) and 0.489 cm (for PbSbBGd1). While, the highest HVL is registered at 2506 keV and equals to 3.456 cm for PbSbBGd0 and 3.152 cm for PbSbBGd1.

Herein we prepared five glass samples from the composition xLa2O3-(100-x)B2O3 (where x = 15, 20, 25, 30 and 35 mol%) and reported the physical, optical and gamma radiation shielding characteristics. The density of glass samples was increased from 3.1531 to 3.9443 g/cm3 with the addition of La2O3, while the molar volume is in the range of 34.2679–40.3849 cm3/mol. The refractive index of the glass samples is in the range of 1.6524–1.6541 with addition of La2O3 concentration. The optical band gap energy is found to be in the range of 3.08–3.14 eV. The transmission spectra for the La2O3 doped borate glasses in the wavelength range 200–2200 nm were reported and the results showed good transparency in visible region. This indicates that the prepared glasses are specifically showing superior transparency to visible light. The mass attenuation coefficient (μ/ρ) was simulated using MCNP code and the simulated data were compared with WinXcom data. The radiation shielding results showed that the different concentrations of La2O3 for the La2O3–B2O3 glass system have affected the μ/ρ of the glasses. Moreover, the sample with 35 mol% of La2O3 has higher μ/ρ compared with the rest of specimens especially at 0.347 MeV. The effective atomic number (Zeff) was also calculated and the highest Zeff values at all selected energies were for the sample with 35 mol% of La2O3, whereas the lowest Zeff were for the sample corresponding to 15 mol% of La2O3, which was 18.86 and 12.31 at 0.347 MeV respectively. The mean free path at 0.347 MeV and 0.511 MeV is very low for 35 mol% of La2O3 (1.88 and 2.70 cm respectively), which indicates that the sample with composition 35La2O3–65B2O3 can be used as effective and transparent photon shieling materials at low energy.

This work investigated the radiation attenuation characteristics of three series of tellurite glass systems with the following compositions: 30PbO-10ZnO-xTeO2-(60-x)B2O3 where x = 10, 30, 40, 50 and 60 mol%, xBaO–xB2O3–(100-2x)TeO2 with x = 15–40 mol% and 50ZnO–(50-x)P2O5–xTeO2, where x = 0, 10, .40 mol%. The results revealed that the attenuation parameters in all the samples decrease with increase in the energy, which implied that all the samples have better interaction with gamma photons at low energies and thus higher photon attenuating efficiency. From the three systems, the samples coded as PbZnBTe60, BaBTe70 and ZnPTe40 have the lowest half value layer values and accordingly have superior photon attenuation efficacy. The maximum effective atomic number values were found for energy less than 0.1 MeV particularly near the K-edges absorption of the heavy atomic number elements such as Te, Ba and Pb. At the lowest energy, the Zeff values are found in the range of 62.33–66.25, 49.43–50.81 and 24.99–35.83 for series 1–3 respectively. Also, we found that the density of the glass remarkably affects the photon attenuation ability of the selected glasses. The mean free path results showed that the PbO-ZnO-TeO2-B2O3 glass system has better radiation shielding efficiency than the glass samples in series 2 and 3. Keywords: Tellurite glasses, Gamma radiation, Shielding, Effective atomic number

Transparent heavy metal oxide glasses are becoming increasingly important because of their effectiveness in reducing unwanted occupational and public radiation exposure in the medical settings; and for the clear view it offers when properly used during the construction of diagnostic radiology facilities, mobile shields and eye wears. WinXCom computer program was used to determine the mass attenuation coefficients of the studied glass systems; while other shielding parameters were determined by using appropriate equations. All these shielding parameters were determined at 20 keV, 30 keV, 40 keV and 60 keV; these are the average energies of photons commonly used in diagnostic radiology. The outcome of this work shows that increment in Bi2O3 led to better MAC and HVL at 20 and 30 keV while increment in TeO2 led to better MAC and HVL at 40 and 60 keV B1, B3 and B4 showed different improved shielding properties at 20, 40 and 60 keV zBi2O3–30B2O3-(70-z) TeO2 glass system showed better shielding qualities when compared with commonly used materials in diagnostic radiology.

Glasses with composition of (60 − x) TeO2 − 10SrO − (30 + x) B2O3 were fabricated by melt quenching method. The structural features have been studied using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and FTIR. The derivative of absorption spectra fitting (DASF) method has been utilized to determine the optical band-gap energy. The measured band-gap energies takes values 3.521, 3.558, 3.581, 3.620 and 3.669 eV for the BSrTe60, BSrTe55, BSrTe50, BSrTe45 and BSrTe40, respectively. The band-gap energies increase with a decrease in the mol% of concentration of TeO2. The transitions involved are found to be indirect transitions. The MCNP-5 simulation code was put to use in estimating gamma photons' mean path length in the material. The lowest linear attenuation coefficient (µ) values lie within the range of 0.162 and 0.107 cm−1 and are detected around 8 MeV. The LAC values decreased linearly with substituting the TeO2 by B2O3 content. The lowest half-value layer (HVL) is found at low energy (around 0.005 cm at 0.015 MeV). The mean free path (MFP) decreases linearly with increasing the TeO2 content and followed the trend: (MFP)BSrTe60

The main objective of this work is to explore the X-ray interaction properties of P2O5- SnCl2-SnO bioactive glass system using Photon Shielding and Dosimetry (Phys-X/PSD) software in the energy range 10–150 keV. The study of these parameters will have applications in various fields of nuclear medicine, medical technology, and other medical applications. The value of mass attenuation coefficients (μm) and effective atomic numbers (Zeff) decrease whereas the value of mean free path as well as half value layer increases with rises in energy in the selected energy range. The study results indicate that bioactive glass composition of T2 of chemical composition (35P2O5- 55SnCl2-10SnO) possesses the lowest value of mean free path (MFP), and highest value of μm, and Zeff, among the chemical composition.

A new glass network consists of (40–x)P2O5 + 30B2O3 + 20Bi2O3 + 10Li2O + xZrO2 where x is ranged between 0 and 5 mol% and was fabricated using a quenching method at temperature ranged between 1050° and 1380 °C. It has been observed that there is an increase in the ZrO2 substitution ratio with the glass melting temperature increased gradually. Moreover, by using the XRD spectrometer, it was verified the amorphous state of the glass samples. The absorbance and refractive index were measured experimentally using the UV–Vis–NIR spectrophotometer. Other essential optical parameters such as energy gap, Urbach energy, extinction coefficient, electrical polarizability, molar fraction, and dielectric constants were calculated based on the refractive index's experimental results. Moreover, the fabricated glass samples' ability to stand against the gamma energy and fast neutron were examined using simulation code MCNP-5 and the theoretical calculation by the latest Electron Photon Interaction Cross Section 2017 photoatomic library. The linear attenuation coefficient (LAC) exhibits a good performance when replacing the P2O5 by ZrO2 contents. The LAC at gamma-ray energy (0.015 MeV) was enhanced from 207.112 to 274.831 cm−1, increasing the ZrO2 replacing ratio between 0 and 5 mol %, respectively. The mass attenuation coefficients (µm) were found to have higher values for the library interpolation as compared to MCNP-5 simulations. The prepared glasses' ability to absorb the incoming fast neutron was diminished from 0.0251 to 0.0245 cm2 g−1, increasing the ZrO2 substitution ratio between 0 and 5 mol %, respectively.

A series of four glass specimens with the molar percentage formula 20PbO–50B2O3–30CaO–xEr2O3–yNd2O3: (x, y) = (0,0), (0,1), (1,0), and (1,1) mol% were synthesized by the conventional melt quenching process, namely PBC-Nd0Er0, PBC-Nd0Er1, PBC-Nd1Er0, and PBC-Nd1Er1. Structure, physical, optical properties, and gamma-radiation protection efficiency of the synthesized glasses have been investigated. XRD measurements confirmed that the synthesized glasses were in non-crystalline nature. The glasses density was increased from 4.13 to 4.30 g/cm3. The direct optical band gap (OBG) decreases from 3.57 to 3.18 eV, while the indirect (OBG) decreases from 2.90 to 2.75 eV. Refractive index (n) follows the order PBC-Nd1Er1 > PBC-Nd0Er0 > PBC-Nd1Er0 > PBC-Nd0Er1. The PBC-Nd1Er1 glass sample has the highest (Ed = 25 eV), the lowest (Eo = 2 eV), and the highest value of (no) equal to 3.67 compared with other glasses. Both of optical and electrical conductivities (σoptical and σelectrical) follow the order: PBC-Nd1Er1 > PBC-Nd0Er1 > PBC-Nd1Er0 > PBC-Nd0Er0. The maximum ability for the investigated glasses to block the radiations passing through them occurred at 0.223 meV, and the LAC lies in the range of 1.650 cm−1 for PBC-Nd0Er0 and 1.719 cm−1 for PBC-Nd1Er1. By contrast, the minimum ability took place at 1.458 meV, and at this energy, the LAC lies in the range of 0.216 and 0.224 cm−1. The HVL values show that there is a trend to attenuating potentiality reducing as the energy raises from 0.223 to 1.458 meV. It is shown that the PBC-Nd1Er1 glass sample possesses the superior optical properties and shielding capacity among each of other investigated glasses.

Glass–ceramics of composition (39.5–x) PbO–20 B2O3–20 TeO2–20 MgO–0.5 Dy2O3–x Tb2O3 (where x = 0, 0.5, 1, 1.5, 2, and 2.5 mol%) have been prepared by controlled heat treatment. XRD confirms the crystalline phases present in the network. The structural and vibrational bonds present in the network structure were estimated using the FTIR technique. The band-gap values for the direct and indirect decrease from 3.209 to 3.025 eV and 3.006 to 2.637 eV as terbium concentration increases. The gamma-ray shielding features for the fabricated samples were examined with the help of the MCNP5 code. The relative difference between the linear attenuation coefficients (LAC) obtained by MCNP5, and validated by XCOM, is less than 6%. The addition of Tb2O3 affects the LAC values, especially at the lower energies (0.347 and 0.662 MeV), where a notable decrease in the LAC was recorded as more Tb2O3 was added to the glasses. For the TNNS0-TNNS2.5 glasses, and with the simulated LAC's help, we reported the half-value layer (HVL). For all six of the prepared TNNS0.0–TNNS2.5 glasses, HVL positively correlated with energy. For TNNS0.5, its HVL increased from 0.3770 cm at 0.284 MeV, to 0.9929 cm at 0.511 MeV, 1.6241 cm at 0.826 MeV, and 2.367 cm at 1.332 MeV. From the HVL results, we found that when using these glasses to absorb low energy radiation, a smaller thickness is required to properly absorb most of the photons, while a much greater thickness is required in high energy applications. The ratio between the HVL of TNNS0.0 and TNNS0.5 glasses was calculated. The HVL ratio between TNNS0.0 and TNNS2.5 was also calculated to understand the glass composition's effect on the HVL values. In both cases, the ratios at all energies were greater than one, which means that TNNS0.0 has the greatest HVL at all energies. These results prove that TNNS0 has the greatest potential in radiation-shielding applications, as a lower HVL signifies a better shield, while TNN2.5 has the least potential. The transmission factor (TF) of the investigated glasses at four different thicknesses and four energies was examined. The results revealed that its TF decreases as the thickness of the glass increases for anyone glass, which proves that increasing the thickness of the glasses improves their shielding ability.

This work presents a study on the characteristics of the radiation attenuating behavior of oxy-fluoro borotellurite glasses with general formula TeO2–B2O3–LiF–BaO–Bi2O3. The mass attenuation coefficient (MAC) decreases pointedly as the energy goes up from 15 keV–0.15 MeV. The MAC for the tested samples lies within the range 40.032–50.170 cm2/g at 15 keV. We examined the effective atomic number (Zeff), and the results revealed that initially Zeff reaches the maximum values up to around 0.1 MeV and then Zeff decreases and reaches the minimum values between around 1 and 4 MeV. The Zeff lies within the range of 56.11–57.85 (at 15 keV). The Zeff of the tested samples increases with the increasing content of TeO2. The half value layer (HVL) was evaluated, and the effect of TeO2 and the energy on this parameter was discussed. The minimum HVL was reported at 15 keV and varied between 0.00463–0.00226 cm.

In this study, polymer solar cells were synthesized by adding Sb2S3 nanocrystals (NCs) to thin blended films with polymer poly(3-hexylthiophene)(P3HT) and [6,6]-phenyl-C61-butyric-acid-methyl-ester (PCBM) as the p-type material prepared via the spin-coating method. The purpose of this study is to investigate the dependence of polymer solar cells’ performance on the concentration of Sb2S3 nanocrystals. The effect of the Sb2S3 nanocrystal concentrations (0.01, 0.02, 0.03, and 0.04 mg/mL) in the polymer’s active layer was determined using different characterization techniques. X-ray diffraction (XRD) displayed doped ratio dependences of P3HT crystallite orientations of P3HT crystallites inside a block polymer film. Introducing Sb2S3 NCs increased the light harvesting and regulated the energy levels, improving the electronic parameters. Considerable photoluminescence quenching was observed due to additional excited electron pathways through the Sb2S3 NCs. A UV–visible absorption spectra measurement showed the relationship between the optoelectronic properties and improved surface morphology, and this enhancement was detected by a red shift in the absorption spectrum. The absorber layer’s doping concentration played a definitive role in improving the device’s performance. Using a 0.04 mg/mL doping concentration, a solar cell device with a glass /ITO/PEDOT:PSS/P3HT-PCBM: Sb2S3:NC/MoO3/Ag structure achieved a maximum power conversion efficiency of 2.72%. These Sb2S3 NCs obtained by solvothermal fabrication blended with a P3HT: PCBM polymer, would pave the way for a more effective design of organic photovoltaic devices.

In the present study, series of 20BaO-10SrO-30TeO2-(40-x)B2O3-xMoO3 where (x= 0, 5, 10, & 15 mol%) was synthesized via standard melt quench technique. The XRD results affirm the amorphous nature for all glasses, while the FTIR confirms the functional group's existence for TeO2 and B2O3. Various parameters were calculated to define the physical features of the glass samples, like molar volume, density, packing density, Poisson's ratio, oxygen packing density, and oxygen molar volume. The shielding features like mass attenuation coefficient, mean free path, equivalent atomic number, half-value layer, and tenth value layer, specific gamma-ray, gamma dose rate, the specific absorbed fraction of the energy, gamma transmission factor, removal cross-section for fas neutron ( ∑ R ) were computed and determined theoretically by using Phy-X. The addition of MoO3 instead of B2O3 in glass samples improves all the structural and shielding features, indicating that glass materials can be used as a good radiation shielding absorber.

The influence of 0.25–30 kGy γ doses on the 10BaO–20ZnO–20LiF-49.3B2O3-0.7Er2O3 glass was analyzed through the density, optical absorption, thermo-, and photo luminescence. With a successive increase in the dose, the density of the glass increased, confirming radiation-induced compaction. The color of the glass deepened progressively with the increase in the γ dose, leading to the enhancement in the optical absorption. A continuous fall in the bandgap and an increase in the Urbach energy was also observed. The rise in the electron density with dose, caused a gradual upsurge in the covalency around the Er3+ ions, as inferred from the bonding parameter (δ), and the Judd-Ofelt parameters (Ω2, Ω4, Ω6). The defects produced in the glass because of irradiation were evaluated using the trap parameters deduced from the Computerized Glow Curve Deconvolution and Chen’s peak shape methods. The 30 kGy irradiated glass contained deeper traps when compared to the 0.25 kGy irradiated glass. The excitation spectrum recorded by monitoring the emission at 550 nm revealed the spectral transitions originating from the ground state 4 I15/2 of the Er3+ ion to 4 G9/2, 4 G11/2, ( 2 G,4 F)9/2, 4 F5/2, and 4 F7/2 excited states, among which the 4 I15/2 → 4 G11/2 transition at 379 nm was very intense. In the emission spectra, one violet ( 2 H9/ 2→4 I15/2) and two green emissions ( 2 H11/2→4 I15/2 and 4 S3/2→4 I15/2) were detected out of which the 4 S3/2→4 I15/2 transition was the most prominent. The decrement in the intensity of this emission with dose was attributed to the radiation-induced quenching. The laser performance parameters computed by the Fuchtbauer-Ladenburg theory validated the emission quality of the irradiated glasses. The quantum efficiency did not fall below 60% for all the doses. The color coordinates were clustered in the green region and showed not much variation with dose. The present study manifests the remarkable radiation hardness of the titled glass as a green emission device and laser.

A new glass system with a chemical formula (60-x) B2O3+20Bi2O3 +20Li2O+ xSm2O3: x = 0, 1.25, 2.5, 3.75 and 5 wt% was synthesized using the solid-state conventional approach. The density of the newly fabricated glasses was determined using the Archimedes method. The glasses’ structure was studied utilizing the X-ray diffraction spectroscopy. Moreover, some of the most effective optical features such as the refractive index (n), energy gap (Eg), and Urbach energy (Eu) were determined based on the absorbance obtained from the UV-visible spectrum. Furthermore, the radiation shielding capacity of the newly fabricated samples was assessed utilizing the Monte Carlo Modeling (MCNP 5) code and Phy-X/PSD software. The calculated mass attenuation coefficient (MAC) values at 0.015 MeV were observed to increase from 21.893 to 25.570 cm2 g−1 for glasses BBLS1 and BBLS5 respectively. Simulations demonstrated that the MAC of the fabricated glasses enhanced with the insertion of the Sm2O3 contents. Besides, the buildup factors (EBF and EABD) were calculated using the program Phy-X/PSD. The removal cross-section ƩR for the fast neutrons was theoretically calculated. The calculated results showed the ƩR varied in the range between 0.170 and 0.241 cm-1 for glasses BBLS1 and BBLS5 respectively. The recorded results depict that the insertion of Sm2O3 enhances the optical, gamma-ray, and neutron shielding capacities.

The effect of Eu3+ ions on the linear and radiation shielding factors of zinc-borate tellurite glass doped with different contents of Eu2O3 with the form (25-x)ZnO–24B2O3–51TeO2-xEu2O3: x = 0 (E1), 0.5 (E2), 1 (E3), and 3 (E4) mol% have been investigated. The linear refractive index of the E1-E4 glasses varied from 2.48 to 2.54. The (Rmolar) increased from 20.809 (cm3/mol) for E1 glass to 21.040 (cm3/mol) for E4 glass, while the (Rloss) increased from 0.180 to 0.189. The (Mcriterion) varied from 0.279 to 0.268 for the investigated E1-E4 glasses. The (estatic) varies from 6.150 to 6.451, while the (χ*) varied from 0.724 to 0.683. The mass attenuation coefficient (μ/ρ) was calculated via Phy-X/PSD program. At 0.284 MeV, the μ/ρ changes from 0.151 to 0.159 cm2/g, whereas, at 1.33 MeV, the μ/ρ increases from 0.0504 to 0.0506 cm2/g. Therefore, the (μ/ρ) obeys the trend: (μ/ρ)E1 (HVL)E2 > (HVL)E3 > (HVL)E4. Therefore, the increasing of Eu3+ ions in the investigated zinc-borate tellurite glasses leads to enhance of their linear optical and gamma-ray shielding factors. In addition, the E4 (3 mol% Eu2O3) glass sample owns better gamma ray's absorption properties compared with the rest of the investigated glasses intensively utilized in the protection against harmful gamma radiations.

A novel glass system consists of six glasses was fabricated using melt quenching process according the chemical formula (60-x) B2O3+20Na2O2+20Bi2O3 +xWO3: x = 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 wt%. Archimedes method was used to determine the density and molar volume of the fabricated glasses. Moreover, the X-ray diffraction technique was used to show the variation of the amorphous phase with the addition of WO3 contents for the fabricated glasses. The optical features such as the refractive index (n), energy gap (Eg), distribution energy (Ed) and oscillation energy (Eo) were calculated based on the absorbance obtained from the UV-visible spectrum. The electromagnetic radiation (gamma ray) shielding capacity was evaluated using Monte Carlo simulation (MCNP 5) code in addition to Phy-X program. The results showed that the highest linear attenuation coefficient (LAC) occurred at 0.015 MeV and increased from 99.532 to 138.656 cm−1 for glasses coded as W 1 and W 6 respectively. The obtained results showed an enhancement of gamma ray shielding capacity with the addition of WO3 (wt%) to the fabricated glasses. Based on the estimated LAC, other shielding properties were calculated such as the glass half value layer (HVL), mean free path (MFP) and effective atomic number (Zeff). Finally, the ability of the fabricated glasses to resist the charged particles (alpha and proton) and uncharged neutrons were also estimated using SRIM program and theoretical calculation. The obtained results refer that the insertion of WO3 contents improves the shielding capacity for alpha and protons while it reduces the effective removal cross section of the fabricated glasses.

Experimental measurements and Monte Carlo simulation were applied to simulate the mass attenuation coefficient (MAC) for five various rock samples collected from southwestern Sinai, Egypt. Also, for the same rocks we determined the MAC and exposure buildup factors (EBF and EABF) theoretically using Phy-X/PSD software. The results show that there is adequate agreement between experimental and simulated results as well as with the Phy-X/PSD data. The linear attenuation coefficient (μ) decreases as the photon energy increases. The decrease is dramatically steep for energies bellow 0.3445 MeV and then gradually decreases with further increasing in the energy. Basalt-2 has slightly higher μ than basalt-1 and both rocks have higher μ than limestone (Dike), Basalt sill, and Rhyolite. We also calculated the effective atomic number (Zeff) for the investigated rocks and the Zeff values are in the range of 18.80–23.68, 18.52–23.57, 13.98–20.49, 19.15–23.89 and 22.32–26.68 for baslat-1, basalt-2, dike, basalt-sill and rhyolite respectively. The result showed that basalt-2 possesses the lowest half value layer at all energies followed by basalt-1. The radiation protection efficiency (RPE) at 122 keV is found to be in the range of 34.295–38.982%, while at 662 keV in the range of 17.402–22.886. The obtained results of EBF and EABF showed that limestone (Dike) possess the highest EBF and EABF while samples Basalt-1 and Basalt-2 possess the lowest EBF and EABF among the studied rocks.

A series of six tungsten-based bismuth borate glasses with a xWO3- 20 Bi2O3- 20 Na2O2- (60-x) B2O3), 0≤ x ≤ 5 wt% chemical composition were synthesized by using the solid-state conventional method. The structures of the fabricated samples were studied with X-ray diffraction analysis. Optical features such as the energy gap (Eg), Urbach energy (Eu), steepness parameter (S), refractive index (n) and Fermi level energy (EF) were measured for the fabricated glasses with a UV–Vis–NIR spectrophotometer. Furthermore, a Monte Carlo simulation code (MCNP-5) was applied to estimate the gamma ray mass attenuation coefficient (MAC) for the fabricated glasses. The simulated data showed that the insertion of WO3 increases the MACs of the fabricated samples: the highest and lowest MACs were obtained for the W6 and W1 glasses, respectively. Then, the simulated MAC was used to calculate the mean free path (MFP) for all the fabricated glasses. The thinnest MFP was achieved by W6 (increasing from 0.007 to 70,560 between 0.015 and 15 MeV, respectively), while the thickest MFP was achieved by W1 (increasing from 0.0100 to 8.975 between 0.015 and 15 MeV, respectively). Moreover, new Phy-x/PD software was used to calculate MAC, MFP, equivalent atomic number (Zeq) and the exposure and energy absorption buildup factors (EBF and EABF). The simulated and calculated results showed that adding WO3 enhances the shielding properties of the synthesized glass.

In this work, we reported the gamma ray shielding factors for barium phosphate glasses with composition yCaF2–(50−y)BaO–50P2O5 (y = 0, 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 mol%). The Phy-X/PSD software has been used to report the attenuation and penetration factors for this glass system at different energies. The linear attenuation coefficient (LAC) values are found to reduce exponentially with increasing the energy and they range from 0.176 to 0.496 cm−1 (for CaBaP1) and 0.184–0.548 cm−1 (for CaBaP6). It was found that the addition of barium oxide (BaO) causes an increase in the LAC values from 0.697 to 0.787 cm−1 at 0.284 MeV, and from 0.259 to 0.273 cm−1 at 0.662 MeV. The effective atomic number (Zeff) results revealed the higher photons interaction possibility at the higher BaO content. The maximum Zeff is reported at 0.284 MeV and equal to 18.33 for CaBaP1and 20.15 for CaBaP6. Phy-X/PSD program has been used to find the half value layer (HVL) for the glasses under evaluation between 0.284 and 1.33 MeV. The HVL results showed that more gamma rays are being shielded at 0.284 MeV, whereas the possibility of photon shielding is decreased with the increasing of the energy. The tenth value layer (TVL) values were decreased with increase in BaO concentrations and increased with increase in the energy. CaBaP6 has the minimum TVL (4.206 cm at 0.284 MeV, 8.445 cm at 0.662 MeV and 12.252 cm at 1.275 MeV).