This study investigates the consequences of substituting Nd2O3 for phosphate glasses in an effort to enhance their optical, physical in nature, and radiation-shielding qualities. The glasses were fabricated using a melt-quenched technique and had the following composition: (60-x) P2O5–20Li2O–15ZnO–5Bi2O3–xNd2O. We assigned them the code Nd-x, where x = (0.0, 0.25, 0.50, 0.75, 1.0) mol% is the quantity of neodymium oxide in each sample. When P2O5 is replaced by Nd2O3, the glass samples' density rapidly rises from 2.9613 to 3.0686 g/cm3. In UV–visible-NIR tests, the corresponding energy of band gap ( \({E}_{g}\) ) dropped as the amount of neodymium rose, pushing the absorption spectrum edge toward longer wavelengths. The similar indirect ( \({E}_{g}\) ) decreased from 4.292 eV toward 3.691 eV, while the direct ( \({E}_{g}\) ) decreased from 4.690 eV toward 4.096 eV. The decrease in \({E}_{g}\) has been shown to be mostly caused by non-bridging oxygens, or NBOs. As the amount of Nd3+ ions in the glass structure rose, the Metallization Ratio (M) fell while the refractive index (n) and third-order non-linear optical susceptibility \({\chi }^{(3)}\) improved. To confirm the efficacy of employing these research samples by ionizing radiation shields, the linear attenuation coefficients (µ) data were computed using Web Phy-X and the Monte Carlo simulation technique. The half value layer \(HVL\) plus mass attenuation coefficient of the current samples were examined. The findings demonstrated that the gamma-ray blocking capacity was significantly influenced by the quantity of neodymium oxide. As an example, increasing gamma photon energy from 0.015 → 15 MeV caused the \(HVL\) values to increase from 0.008 towards 8.523 cm for Nd-0.0, from 0.008 towards 8.406 cm for Nd-0.25, from 0.008 towards 8.262 cm for Nd-0.5, from 0.007 towards 8.179 cm for Nd-0.75, and from 0.007 towards 8.075 cm for Nd-1.0 glass. Neodymium oxide can be added to ordinary glass to increase its resistance to ionizing radiation.
