STRUCTURAL STUDIES OF LITHIUM LEAD DIBORATE GLASES DOPED WITH SAMARIUM IONS

The present work deals with the investigation of lithium diborate glasses containing Sm3+ ion in the system 30Li2O-60B2O3-(10-x) PbO-xSm2O3 where x varied from 0 to 2 mol%. The replacement of lead oxide by Sm2O3 results in the formation of weaker network linkages leads to the creation of non-bridging oxygen (NBO) atoms. The continuous increase in the separation between boron (dB-B) atoms shows a significant weakening of the glass network. The energy gap of oxide glasses was initially found to decrease and then increase with Sm2O3 concentration. The variation of band gap energy could be explained based on the strength and depolymerisation of the borate glass network. The deconvolution of FTIR spectra was performed with multiple peaks fit using Gaussian shape function and the results are conferred in terms of lithium-diborate glass network.