Natural Fe3O4 nanoparticles embedded zinc–tellurite glasses: Polarizability and optical properties

Modifying the optical behavior of zinc–tellurite glass by embedding magnetic nanoparticles has implication in nanophotonics. A series of zinc–tellurite glasses containing natural Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles with composition (80 − x)TeO₂·xFe₃O₄·20ZnO (0 ≤ x ≤ 2) in mol% are synthesized by melt quenching method and their optical properties are investigated using FTIR and UV–vis–NIR spectroscopies. Lorentz–Lorenz relations are exploited to determine the refractive index, molar refraction and electronic polarizability. The sharp absorption peaks of FTIR spectra show a shift from 667 cm⁻¹ to 671 cm⁻¹ in the presence of nanoparticles that increase the non-bridging oxygen, confirmed by the intensity change of the TeO₃ peak at 752 cm⁻¹. A new peak around 461 cm⁻¹ is also observed which is attributed to the band characteristic of covalent Fe–O linkages. A decrease in the Urbach energy as much as 0.122 eV and the optical energy band gap with the increase of Fe₃O₄ concentration (0.5–1.0 mol%) is evidenced. Electronic polarizability of the glasses increases with increasing Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles concentration up to 1 mol%. Interestingly, the polarizability tends to decrease with the further increase of Fe₃O₄ concentration at 2 mol%. The role of magnetic nanoparticles in influencing the structural and optical behavior are examined and understood.