Influence of WO3 content on gamma rays attenuation characteristics of phosphate glasses at low energy range

Abstract

The radiation attenuation characteristics of WO3-Li2O-ZnO-P2O5 glasses have been examined using Phy-X software. The linear attenuation coefficient is correspondingly increased with the inclusion of WO3, which indicates the existence of a reducing tendency in the photon transmission correlating with an increment in the WO3 content in the glasses. When density is increased, there is a considerable reduction in the half-value layer (HVL), which is most noticeable between 80 and 100 keV. Because the HVL reaches high values at 100 keV for the samples, it can be deduced that the HVL steadily increases as the energy increases. Additionally, increasing the amount of WO3 in the glasses causes the mean free path (MFP) to decrease. The MFP for the glasses was compared with that of different heavy concretes, and the comparison demonstrated that the chosen systems have the potential to be used for the fabrication of protection masks that are utilized during diagnostic radiation treatment. We determined the ratio between the tenth value layer for the free-WO3 sample and the sample with 10 mol% and we found that the ratio is higher than 1, which suggests that the tenth value layer is decreased with the addition of WO3 to the glasses.

Keywords

• phosphate glasses
• transmission factor
• shielding
• dental diagnostic energies