Eu3+-activated boro tellurite glass: A dual-functional material for photonic emission and gamma-radiation protection

The new formulation of Eu2O3–doped zinc borotellurite glass system was successfully synthesized using conventional melt-quenching technique, and characterize for structural, optical, photoluminescence, and radiation-shielding performance. The density of the glass sample increase from 3.95 to 4.23 g/cm3, while molar volume decreased from 29.82 to 28.77 cm3/mol due to Eu2O3 substitution into the borotellurite glass network, where lighter oxides are partially replaced by a heavier rare-earth oxide which signifying improved structural compactness. The XRD analysis confirms the amorphous nature of the glass samples. The increase in Eu2O3 concentration indicated an increase in the optical bandgap from 3.34 to 3.41 eV. Upon excitation at 395 nm, a prominent red emission centered at 617 nm was observed, corresponding to the 5D0 → 7F2 transition of Eu3+ ions. This emission is attributed to the occupation of Eu3+ ions at low-symmetry sites within the glass matrix, which enhances the probability of electric dipole transitions and consequently intensifies the red luminescence. The radiation shielding performance evaluated using Phy-X/PSD simulation revealed pronounced attenuation in the low-energy region. The mass attenuation coefficient (MAC) values ranged from 37.920 to 40.200 cm2/g at 0.015 MeV and from 17.474 to 18.551 cm2/g at 0.02 MeV, whereas much lower values of 0.033 to 0.034 cm2/g were recorded at 15 MeV. These variations reflect the dominance of different photon interaction mechanisms across the energy spectrum, namely photoelectric absorption at low energies, Compton scattering at intermediate energies, and pair production at higher energies.

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