The polarizability and optical characteristics of zinc phosphate glasses doped terbium embedded with copper oxide nanoparticles

Abstract

Tuning the concentration of nanoparticles (NPs) to accommodate wider application demanded a better understanding of the physicals and structural properties of the glass. A series of zinc phosphate glasses with the composition of (57-x) P2 O5-40ZnO-3Tb2 O3 –xCuO, (0 ≤ x ≤ 2 mol %) has been prepared by melt quenching technique and their physical and optical characterization have been studied. The X-Ray Diffraction technique and UV-Vis Spectroscopy have been used to characterize the glass sample. The XRD confirms the amorphous nature of the prepared glasses. The physical properties of glasses with different CuO NPs such as density, molar volume, refractive index and electronic polarizability are determined. It is found that both density and molar volume decreases with increasing CuO NPs concentration. The optical band gap (4.54 eV-2.96 eV) and the Urbach energy (0.19 eV-0.54 eV) are showing a decreasing trend with the increasing amount of CuO NPs.This is due to the formation of non-bridging oxygen, (NBO) in the glass network. The glass exhibits high refractive index ~2.40 and polarizability ~1.12×10-23 cm3 and is useful for solid-state laser and optoelectronic devices.