Tailoring the structural, physical, opto-electrical characteristics, neutron and γ-ray attenuation competence of BaO/CeO2 bismo-borate glasses

The effect of BaO/CeO₂ substitution on the structure, linear optical properties, and γ-ray absorption efficiency of glasses with formulation 50B₂O₃ + 25Bi₂O₃+(10-x)BaO + 15Li₂O + XCeO₂: X = 0 (BBBLC-0.0) – 1 (BBBLC-1.0) mol% has been investigated. The traditional melt-quenching route is used for the glass production process. Raman spectroscopy, UV-Vis measurement, MCNP simulation code and EpiXs software were employed to achieve the mentioned objective. Density (ρ) slightly increased from 4.6892 to 4.7011 g/cm³, while molar volume (V_m) decreased from 36.4913 to 36.4389 cm³/mol as CeO₂ increased in the glass network. Raman intensity decreased as the concentration of CeO₂ increased in the glass network, which leads to a decrease in the formation of additional non-bridging oxygen (NBO) and bond breakage. The values of direct optical gap (\(\:{\varvec{E}}_{\varvec{g}}^{\varvec{D}\varvec{i}\varvec{r}\varvec{e}\varvec{c}\varvec{t}})\) reduced going from 2.53 ± 0.01 eV to 2.25 ± 0.01 eV, while values of the indirect gap (\(\:{\varvec{E}}_{\varvec{g}}^{\varvec{I}\varvec{n}\varvec{d}\varvec{i}\varvec{r}\varvec{e}\varvec{c}\varvec{t}}\)) varied from 2.51 ± 0.01 eV to 2.17 ± 0.01 eV. Values of Urbach’s energy (E_U) declined from 0.4052 to 0.3282 eV for BBBLC-1.0. As the substitution ratio of Ce ions increased, the refractive index (n) and optical dielectric constants (ε₁ and ε₂) improved. Linear absorption coefficient \(\:\left({\upmu\:}\right)\) verified as: BBBLC-0.0 < BBBLC-0.25 < BBBLC-0.5 < BBBLC-0.75 < BBBLC-1.0. In terms of half-value (HVl), and tenth-value (TVl) values, the synthesized BBBLC-1.0 sample is the lowest. When compared to the manufactured BBBLC-X glasses, the BBBLC-1.0 sample offers superior protection against gamma radiation.