Investigation of optical properties and γ-ray/neutrons shielding capacity of boro-bismo glasses reinforced with La₂O₃ for opto-electronic and medical applications

In the present work, unique glass systems of zinc boro-bismo cobalt sodium fluoride reinforced with La₂O₃ were created via the conventional melt-quenching method. Density (ρ) increased from 3.10 to 3.42 g/cm³. As the concentration of La₂O₃ increases, the structural flaw in the glass networks leads to greater values of the extinction coefficient (K). The direct optical band gap reduced from 3.923 to 3.691 eV. A material with high optical density is produced when La₂O₃ doping raises the density of localized states in a system, which also raises refractive index (n) values from 2.18 to 2.23. The incorporation of cobalt as well as lanthanum content to the glass system increases the values of the real (ε₁) and imaginary (ε₂) dielectric constants. The permittivity (ε) enhanced from 4.793 ± 0.001 to 4.983 ± 0.001. The addition of CoO and La₂O₃ doping reduces non-linear optical susceptibility (χ³), and non-linear refractive index (n₂). The buildup factors (B_UFs) values were highest at 40 M_FP, and lowest at 1 M_FP. The fast-neutrons removal cross-section (FNRCS) of glass samples have values 0.103, 0.104, 0.107, 0.109, and 0.112 cm⁻¹, for S-X glasses, where X = 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, respectively. The prepared S-5 sample possessed the best γ/neutron radiation shielding capability among all studied glasses. In addition the suggested glasses can be applied for optical devices and photovoltaic solar cells.