Novel bismuth-lead-silver glasses and glass ceramics doped with neodymium ions

The structures of novel bismuth-lead-silver glasses and glass ceramics doped with neodymium ions were studied by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and FTIR spectroscopy. FTIR spectroscopy data show that BiO3, BiO6, PbO3 and PbO4 are the most important structural units in the studied systems. These data also made it possible to obtain essential information concerning the arrangement of the structural units in the studied glasses and glass ceramics. XRD diffraction shows the presence of Bi2O3 and PbO1.44 crystalline phases for the samples heat treated at 600 °C for 20 h.