Gamma Ray Shielding Properties of Yb³⁺-Doped Calcium Borotellurite Glasses

• Main Authors: Aljawhara H. Almuqrin, M. I. Sayyed
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2021-06-01
• Series: Applied Sciences
• Subjects: borotellurite; radiation shielding; radiation glasses; gamma-rays; Phy-X/PSD
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/11/12/5697

This research work aims to investigate the radiation shielding ability of a Yb³⁺-doped calcium borotellurite glass system. The system has the basic composition of CaF₂–CaO–B₂O₃–TeO₂–Yb₂O₃ but is denoted as TeBYbn for simplicity. The effect of increasing the TeO₂ content in the glasses from 10 to 54 mol% was investigated, with five different chosen compositions and densities. The Phy-X/PSD program was used to investigate the mass attenuation coefficient (µ/ρ) of the samples. The mass attenuation coefficients were theoretically determined by using an online software for the calculation of shielding parameters. Other parameters were then calculated and analyzed, such as the linear attenuation coefficient (µ), transmission factor (TF), radiation protection efficiency (RPE), effective atomic number (Z_eff), and mean free path (MFP). TeBYb5, the glass with the greatest TeO₂ content, was shown to have the greatest µ/ρ; however, at greater energies, the differences between the values are practically negligible. µ was shown to increase with density, such as from 0.386 cm⁻¹ to 0.687 cm⁻¹ for TeBYb1 and TeBYb5 at 0.284 MeV, respectively. The least TF was found for samples with a thickness of 1.5 cm, proving an inverse correlation between the thickness of the sample and the TF. The HVL and TVL of the glasses decreased as the density of the samples increased, which means that TeBYb1 is the least effective out of the investigated glasses. The five samples proved to have a lower MFP than some other shielding glasses, demonstrating their capabilities as radiation shields. Based on the calculated parameters, TeBYb5 indicated the greatest photon attenuation ability.