Optical and gamma-ray attenuation of cobalt and lanthanum-doped sodium zinc lead borate glass

The current study used the melt-quench process to create a novel glass system with the chemical formula 65B₂O₃-15NaF-15ZnO-5Bi₂O₃- 0.25 CoO-x La₂O₃, where x increases by 0.2% increments between 0 and 0.6 mol%. The density was enhanced with addition of cobalt oxide CoO and increasing lanthanum oxide La₂O₃ content. Improvements in mass (μ_m) and linear attenuation coefficient (μ) are achieved by adding CoO and increasing the La₂O₃ concentration. HVL, TVL, and MFP are lowest in the prepared S5 glass sample (with the highest amount of CoO-La₂O₃). By addition of CoO and increasing La₂O₃ content, the values of direct optical band gap (E_opt) decreased from 3.923 eV to 3.691 eV, while E_opt fell from 3.635 eV to 3.421 eV for indirect and Urbach energy value, E_U, ranged from to 0.546 eV to 0.442 eV. The produced glass samples can be employed as photovoltaic solar cells since the addition of cobalt and La³⁺ ions increases the refractive index values and creates a high optically dense material. Empirical relations are employed to determine the values of several optical characteristics, including molar reflectivity, transmission coefficient, refractive index, and electronic and molar polarizabilities.