Raman, FTIR studies and optical absorption of zinc borate glasses containing WO${}_3$

Glasses with composition [xWO${}_3$-(25-x)-ZnO-20Na${}_2$O-55B${}_2$O${}_3$ where x = 0, 5, 10, 15 and 20 mol. %] were prepared by melt quenching method. The amorphous state of the current glass samples was checked by X-ray diffraction (XRD). The measured density and calculated molar volume of all prepared samples were found to increase with the replacement of the lighter ZnO by the heavier of WO${}_3$. The network structure of the present glasses was studied using the infrared (IR) and Raman spectroscopic techniques. IR and Raman results show that the structure of the samples is BO${}_3$ and BO${}_4$ units located in several structural groups with W-O-W units. The decreasing of the band gap energy values by the introducing of WO${}_3$ showed that the creation increases of the number of non-bridging oxygens in the structure of glass. All results showed that the parameters were dependent upon the dopant concentration of WO${}_3$ in the prepared glasses.