Gamma ray buildup factors of lithium borate glasses doped with minerals

Five parameters (G-P) fitting method was used to calculate the gamma ray energy absorption and exposure buildup factor values of barite-doped, limonite-doped, serpentine-doped and undoped lithium borate glass types for incident photon energy, between 0.015 MeV and 15 MeV, and penetration depths, 40 mean free path. It was observed that the buildup factor values vary with not only different incident gamma energy values, but also chemical composition of glass samples. According to our results, the barite and limonite doped glasses (B1, B2 and L2) have the lowest values of energy absorption and exposure buildup factors. Among the selected sample of glasses, the barite and limonite-doped glasses possessed superior gamma-ray shielding effectiveness due to their higher equivalent atomic number values and the lower energy absorption and exposure buildup factor values. In other words, the presence of highly equivalent atomic number minerals improves the gamma ray shielding characteristics of the lithium borate glasses. Moreover, EABF and EBF values were compared and discussed.