Speaker:

Miguel Ángel Respaldiza Galisteo (CNA and Dept. of Atomic, Molecular and Nuclear Physics, University of Seville)

Summary:

In the last decades, the use of nuclear techniques of non-destructive analysis boomed in the field of cultural heritage. Its use in the study of objects of heritage interest became essential for today’s standards. Since the 90s, the CNA’s research group in Cultural Heritage made a big effort to develop different non-destructive analytical techniques for the study of artistic and archaeological objects.

Initially, these efforts were focused on the use of techniques based on ion beams (or IBA techniques, acronym for Ion Beam Analysis) and later on the development of portable X-ray fluorescence units (XRF, X-Ray Fluorescence), with the inclusion of microHAM versions additionally featuring polycapillary lenses (XRF and Confocal XRF), which enable “on site” analysis of objects that are difficult to transfer to the CNA.

We’ve also recently started to develop tomographic image techniques (CT, Computer Tomography) by using gamma photons (60Codel irradiator CNA) or neutrons (HISPANoS, neutron source obtained with CNA accelerators through nuclear reactions) for the non-destructive inspection of opaque objects for conventional radiography with X-ray tubes.

This conference will present the different methods and tools developed in recent years at CNA and, with the help of various applications, we will illustrate their capabilities for the analysis of different types of objects: jewellery, coins, paintings, sculptures, etc. We will show the advantages as well as disadvantages of each technique and examples will be presented to show how the combination of some of these methods can help to overcome limitations.