An investigation of radiation shielding properties of boron doped ZnO thin films

In recent years, the production of alternative materials instead of lead in the environmentally sensitive and nontoxic material research in radiation shielding has been gained importance. In this study, transparent pristine and boron (B) doped zinc oxide (ZnO) thin films were synthesized by spray pyrolysis method. The crystalline structure, morphology and optical properties of the produced films were investigated with X-ray diffractometer (XRD), scanning electron microcopy (SEM) and Uv-vis spectrometer. The wurtzite structure of pure ZnO was deformed by boron doping found from XRD results. The hexagonal rods have been worsened with boron doping observed from SEM analysis. The factors related to radiation shielding; mass and linear attenuation coefficients, half value layer, mean free path and tenth value layer of different percentage (5, 10 and 20%) B doped ZnO thin films were examined. To perform these measurements, PTW (R) electron detector and irradiation have been utilized with 6 MeV energized electrons by using VARIAN (R). The obtained results from these measurements can be useful to understanding of radiation shielding performance of ZnO:B thin films.