Acoustic relaxation of some lead niobium tellurite glasses

The longitudinal ultrasonic attenuation in xNb2O5−(1−x)TeO2, 0.1PbO −xNb2O5−(0.9 −x)TeO2 and 0.2PbO −xNb2O5− (0.8 −x)TeO2 tellurite glass systems was measured using the pulse echo technique at ultrasonic frequencies 2, 4, 6 and 8 MHz in the temperature range from 150 to 300 K. The absorption curves showed the presence of well-defined broad peaks at various temperatures depending upon the glass composition and operating frequency. The maximum peaks move to higher temperatures with the increase of operating frequency, indicating the presence of some kind of relaxation process. This process has been described as a thermally activated relaxation process, which happens when ultrasonic waves disturb the equilibrium of an atom vibrating in a double-well potential in the glass network structure. Results proved that the average activation energy of the process depends mainly on the modifier content. This dependence was analysed in terms of the loss of standard linear solid type, with low dispersion and a broad distribution of Arrhenius-type relaxation with temperature-independent relaxation strength. The experimental acoustic activation energy has been quantitatively analysed in terms of the number of loss centres (number of oxygen atoms that vibrate in the double-well potential).