X-ray shielding characteristics of P${}_2$O${}_5$–Nb${}_2$O${}_5$ glass doped with Bi${}_2$O${}_3$ by using EPICS2017 and Phy-X/PSD

The current paper studied the (95-y)P${}_2$O${}_5$–yBi${}_2$O${}_3$–5Nb${}_2$O${}_5$ glass systems where y = 10, 12.5, 15, and 17.5 mol% using EPICS2017 data library to understand the radiation shielding characteristics. The investigated glass systems, PNbBi1 to PNbBi4, were evaluated in terms of linear attenuation coefficient (LAC), mass attenuation coefficient (MAC), half-value layer (HVL), tenth-value layer (TVL), mean free path (MFP), and effective atomic numbers (Z${}_{eff}$) at the energy levels of 20, 40, 60, 80, and 100 keV. According to the theoretical computations, Bi${}_2$O${}_3$ ensured to improve LAC parameter in all photon energies; hence, PNbBi4 can be regarded as the best. Further, we reported that a nearly 14% increase in glass density leads to improve MAC parameters against ascending photon energies. PNbBi4 can be regarded as the lowest thickness ensuring sample at all photon energies amongst the other samples with respect to HVL and TVL parameters. Moreover, inserting Bi${}_2$O${}_3$ provided lower MFP thicknesses which in turn develops better radiation shielding characteristics. We found out that Z${}_{eff}$ shows an increasing trend as the Bi${}_2$O${}_3$ increases, but displays a decreasing trend as the photon energy increases. Additionally, a comparison of shielding properties using the EpiXS and Phy-X/PSD has been evaluated. It was figured out that there is a good agreement observed between the results of each library. The results in most energies were found to be in good agreement with low (< 1%) relative differences. Overall, the authors concluded that the Bi${}_2$O${}_3$-reinforced PNb series can be utilized in X-ray shielding applications with satisfactory performance.