Evening Lecture – Non-invasive cultural heritage analysis at the University of Liège

The University of Liège has more than 20 years of experience in the use of ion beam analysis techniques for cultural heritage research. Some of the recent developments and projects in archaeology, art history and conservation science will be presented during the lecture.

The first part addresses the high energy extracted beamline up to 20 MeV on a cyclotron with a good energy resolution of a few keV. Over the last years, Ion Beam Analysis users show an interest in High Energy Alpha beam. Next to space applications, radioactive alpha-sources can be used for on-site analysis, as they offer a powerful combination of properties for the analysis of thick layers (about 10 to 20 µm). This kind of layers are often met in cultural heritage applications but can be also present on innovative materials.

In innovative (coated) materials, the main interest lies in the in-depth profiles, since the sample are of known composition. For cultural heritage materials, the combination of elemental analysis and their in-depth distribution is essential as the nature of the material is a priori not known. The development around the first extracted beamline will be developed: the automatic scanning system for macro-PIXE was for example improved.

The development of non-invasive mobile equipment will also be presented as MA-XRF, hyperspectral imaging and molecular spectroscopy. One will then introduce several projects making use of this equipment (Magritte on Practice and Ostia Antica wall-paintings).