Electronic polarizability, dielectric, and gamma-ray shielding properties of some tellurite-based glasses

In this study, five samples of tellurite-based glasses with chemical composition TeO2-ZnO-NiO coded as (TZN1-TZN5) have been reported to investigate their optical and gamma-ray shielding properties. Index of refraction (n(o)), molar refraction (R-M), molar polarizability (alpha(M)), metallization property (M), and static dielectric constant (epsilon) for all the proposed glasses have been determined. Mass attenuation coefficients (mu/rho) for the proposed glasses were calculated by Geant4 simulation code and WinXCOM software in the photon energy region 0.001-10 MeV. The obtained values from these methods were compared, and the correlation factor for each glass sample (R-2) value was found to be 0.999. Based on the obtained values of mu/rho and densities of the samples, different gamma-ray shielding parameters such as half-value layer (HVL), effective atomic number (Z(eff)), and mean free path were evaluated. The HVL values for the selected glasses decreased in the order TZN1 < TZN2 < TZN3 < TZN4 < TZN5 and shielding effectiveness for the studied glasses were compared in the term of MFP with some traditional concretes, commercial glasses, and heavy metal oxide glasses. Results reveal that the studied glasses are promising candidates for radiation-shielding applications and can be applied in several of optical devices.