The manufacture, optical properties, and mechanical aspects of europium-doped borate glasses
Gharam A. Alharshan, Ammar M. Mahmoud, Nasra M. Ebrahem, R. A. Elsad, Shaaban M. Shaaban, Mohamed Elsafi, Shimaa Ali Said
Abstract
An investigation into the optical and mechanical properties of a novel borate glasses with the chemical composition of 70 B 2 O 3 -10 Li 2 O-10ZnO-5Bi 2 O 3 -5CaO-xEu 2 O 3 was conducted. The glassy specimens of Eu 3+ -doped borate were prepared by the melting-quenching technique. An enhanced density from 3.0860 to 3.2176 g cm −3 and reduced molar volume from 29.27819 to 29.17447 (cm 3 mol −1 ) are the outcome of increasing the concentration of Eu 3+ in glasses. Plotting the extinction coefficient, dielectric constant (ε 1 , ε 2 ), and refractive index (n) against wavelength reveals that they all rise as level of Eu 3+ elements in the glass lattice increases. An increase in Eu 3+ concentration results in a decrease in both the volume (VELF) and surface (SELF) energy loss functions. Also, all elastic-mechanical moduli (such as Young’s, Bulk, Shear, and Elongation) increase with increasing the quantity of Eu 3+ ions in the glass lattice. The Young’s modulus (Y, GPa) of the glassy specimens was 34.512, 36.089, 36.504, 36.730 and 37.114 GPa for x equal 0, 0.25, 0.5, 0.75 and 1 mol ratio in the glass system, and coded by Eu-0.0, Eu-0.25, Eu-0.5, Eu-0.75 and Eu-1.0, respectively. Growing Eu 2 O 3 levels resulted in an increase in Micro-Hardness from 2.050 to 2.146 GPa. Poisson’s ratio values for Eu-0.0, Eu-0.250, Eu-0.5, Eu-0.75 and Eu-1.0 were 0.273, 0.275, 0.277, 0.277 and 0.278, respectively.