ELI Beamlines and its new project: Non-Destructive Laser-driven Heritage Testing

ELI Beamlines and its new project: Non-Destructive Laser-driven Heritage Testing

Institute of Physics of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic / ELI Beamlines Research Center is launching a new project called Non-Destructive Methods of Heritage Testing , financed by the Prague Operational Program (Pól růstu ČR, the City of Prague). Researchers from ELI-Beamlines working within the Scientific Program on Ion Acceleration by Laser, and currently commissioning the ELIMAIA user beamline, will be partially supported within the project by the Institute of Nuclear Physics in Řež and Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare - Laboratori Nazionali del Sud (INFN LNS) in Catania. INFN ranks among the best in methods for authentication, conservation and restoration of monuments, but with a conventional particle accelerator. The implementation of laser-driven protons will be worldwide unique for the combination of the planned analyses (PIXE and PAA).

Connection of the Italian know-how and ELI Beamlines Research Center will make the already established methods – newly with laser implementation, available. These methods will be used by facilities of heritage protection in the capital city Prague, especially the galleries and museums. Thus, the Prague cultural institutions will be brought closer to European cultural and educational institutions, such as Louvre Museum and University of Florence, where these non-destructive methods with conventional particle sources are commonly used.

The target of the project is to improve already existing methods, to develop a portable device for non-destructive heritage testing, as well as to train staff for testing and doing experiments tailored to needs of users.

The project runs from March 2018 to August 2020.

 

 

The picture is just illustrative.