Investigation into the optical, physical and radiation shielding properties of sodium borate glasses with the addition of Gd2O3 in the energy range of 1 keV to 100 GeV

Abstract

This research studied the optical, physical and radiation shielding properties of glass samples produced using the melt quenching technique. Samples were prepared with diering concentrations of gadolinium sodium borate. The density of glass samples produced was measured using Archimedes’ principle. The optical properties and the hardness were measured using a UVspectrometer and a micro vickers hardness tester. The theoretical radiation shielding properties of glass samples were calculated using the WinXCom program in the energy range of 1 keV to 100 GeV. The results showed that the density, molar volume and hardness of glass samples was increased with concentration of Gd2O3 in the samples. The transmission all of the glass samples produced was found to be between 65% and 80%. From the calculations it was found that the mass attenuation coecients increased with increasing of Gd2O3 concentration and decreased with increasing energy. Photoelectric absorption was found to be the main interaction in the low energy range. At the medium energy range it was found that the radiation shielding parameters were almost constant and were dominated by Compton’s scattering process. In the high energy range it was found that pair production became the main interaction process.