Optical Properties and Structural Studies on Nd3+ Doped Borate Glasses Containing Heavy Metal Oxide

Neodymium doped sodium bismuth borate (Na2O-Bi2O3-B2O3) glasses were prepared by melt quenching method. Amorphous nature of the glass is confirmed through the X-ray diffraction study. Density of the investigated glasses increases systematically with Bi2O3 concentration. Glass transition temperature decrease slightly with increase of Bi2O3 content and could be due to increase in the number of weaker Bi-O linkages by stronger Nd-O linkages. Fourier Transform - Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy has been carried out. The IR spectra of the glasses reveal that the strong network consisting of diborate units and is unaffected by the variation of Nd3+ concentration. UV-Visible absorption studies have been performed on these glasses to examine the optical spectra and the optical band gap energy has been calculated. The intensity of the absorption band increases with the increase of Nd3+ concentration. This is due to the formation of non-bridging oxygens (NBO’s) in the structure.