Fabrication, physical, structural, and optical investigation of cadmium lead-borate glasses doped with Nd3+ ions: An experimental study

Cadmium lead-borate reinforced with Nd3+ ions glass systems in the composition (60 − x) B2O3+20CdO+20PbO+xNd2O3, where x = (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 wt%) were prepared using the melt and quench method. The fabricated glasses were coded as BCPNdx. The direct effect of Nd3+ ions on fabrication, physical, structure, and optical characteristics of the fabricated glasses has been investigated. XRD patterns confirmed that all fabricated glasses were in amorphous state. Density was increased from 5.034 g/cm3 for BCPNd0 (with free Nd3+ ions) to 5.282 g/cm3 for BCPNd5 (with 5 wt% of Nd2O3). Both indirect and direct optical band gaps (Eg) were found to increase from (1.52 to 2.57 eV) and (1.95 to 3.19 eV), respectively, with the increase in the content of Nd2O3. Urbach energy ( $${E}_{\mathrm{U}}$$ ) values of the synthesized glass samples decreased by the increase in Nd2O3 content and changed inversely with (Eg) of the samples. Values of the oscillator energy (Eo) of the fabricated glasses varied from 2.58 to 6.34 eV, while the dispersion energy (Ed) varied from 3.34 to 8.41 eV. Real part of dielectric values decreases with the increase in the wavelength up to 350 nm, and then stays almost constant, with minor differences between different samples. Both bulk energy loss and surface energy loss increase with the increase in Nd3+ content corresponding to an increase of the bulk and surface energy loss. The amorphous nature of the glasses can be identified from the broad peaks of FTIR absorbance spectra.