# Gamma Ray Shielding Properties of Yb\({}^{3+}\)-Doped Calcium Borotellurite Glasses
## 1 Introduction  
In the past few years, researchers have conducted various studies to find the best materials for reducing exposure to radiation and thus protecting people working in the field of radiation, as well as people exposed to radiation due to side effects [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11]. Glass has features that make it distinct from other materials, such as visible light being able to pass through it, the ease of preparing glass in different and simple ways, and the possibility of changing the density of the glass during the preparation of glass samples. For these reasons, glassy materials are considered some of the most important materials currently used in radiation protection [12, 13, 14, 15]. In order to enhance the photons attenuation ability of any glassy materials, we must use a glass systems which possesses relatively high density, and this is achieved by utilizing heavy metal oxides such as PbO, TeO\({}_{2}\), etc. [16, 17]. Recent studies have shown that tellurite glasses possess effective photon-shielding characteristics, since they have high density and atomic number in addition to their considerable distinguished properties, namely excellent transmission window, high linear refractive index, good stability, low-phonon energies, good chemical resistance and low melting temperature [18, 19]. The aforementioned properties of the TeO\({}_{2}\)-based glasses made researchers interested in studying the shielding properties and trying to develop new types of glass based on tellurite oxide as effective materials in radiationprotection [20; 21; 22]. On the other hand, the calcium borotellurite glasses (CaBTe) have a wide optical window transparency and good thermal stability [23]. Previously, different researchers have examined the thermal and structural properties of CaBTe glasses [23; 24]. To the best our knowledge, there are limited studies that report the gamma ray attenuation ability of CaBTe glasses. For this reason, we aimed in this study to investigate some radiation-shielding factors of CaBTe glasses with the composition CaF\({}_{2}\)-CaO-B\({}_{2}\)O\({}_{3}\)-TeO\({}_{2}\)-Yb\({}_{2}\)O\({}_{3}\)[25]. To report the radiation-shielding factors for any glassy materials, and thus to understand the ability of this material to shield the incoming radiation, one must calculate the mass attenuation coefficient (\(\mu/\varrho\)). There are several ways to determine this quantity, such as Monte Carlo simulation [26] and theoretical calculations based on some computer programs such as WinXcom or Phy-X/PSD [27; 28]. From the \(\mu/\varrho\) values, other shielding factors are calculated, and then we can understand the transmission of the photons through the glassy materials.  
This study aims to report the radiation shielding ability of the Yb\({}^{3+}\)-doped calcium borotellurite glass system. The five glasses are numbered in increasing TeO\({}_{2}\) content, which varies from 10 mol\(\%\) to 54 mol\(\%\), in order to determine the effect of increasing the amount of TeO\({}_{2}\) in the glasses with their attenuation capability. A program was used to calculate the attenuation factors of the glasses, and further parameters were evaluated and analyzed to determine the abilities of these glasses to be used in radiation shielding applications.