Copper Doped Phosphate Glass as an Optical Bandpass Filter

The phosphate glass system of chemical composition 45P 2 O 5 -45 ZnO-(10–x–y)Na 2 O-xCuO-yY 2 O 3 ; where [x = 0, 2, 4, 6 and y = 0, 1 mol%] was prepared by the conventional glass melt quenching technique. The glassy nature of the prepared glasses was proven by x-ray diffraction. The effect of copper content on density ? and molar volume was investigated. It was found that the density of the glass increases by increasing the copper content, while the molar volume V M follows the opposite trend. Optical absorption spectra were measured in the range from 190 to 1100 nm and Two broad bands are observed in both UV and IR regions. Analyses of the obtained results were used for determination of the optical band gap energy (E opt ) Urbach energy and the cutoff in UV and IR regions. The observed behavior shows that the prepared glasses act as bandpass filters in the visible range. The intensity and width of the transmitted band depend on the copper content. Different physical properties such as refractive index and dielectric constant have been calculated. E opt values of glass samples were estimated and found to decrease with increasing CuO content.