Structural role of europium ions in lead–borate glasses inferred from spectroscopic and DFT studies

Glasses in the system xEu2O3 · (100 − x)[3B2O3·PbO] with 0 ⩽ x ⩽ 35 mol% have been prepared from melt quenching method. Structural changes, as recognized by analyzing band shapes of IR spectra, revealed that Eu2O3 causes a change from the continuous borate network to the continuous lead–borate network, interconnected through Pb–O–B and B–O–B bridges. lculations show that lead atoms occupy three different sites in the proposed model. Comparing the theoretical and experimental data, we conclude that the performance of the method/basis sets used on the prediction of the structural data and vibrational modes is good.