Unusual Application Of Ion Beam Analysis For The Study Of Surface Layers On Materials Relevant To Cultural Heritage
- Centre de Recherche et de Restauration des Musees de France CNRS UMR 171 Palais du Louvre - Porte des Lions 75001 Paris (France)
- Service de Recherche en Metallurgie Physique CEA Saclay 91191 Gif sur Yvette Cedex (France)
Recently a new thematic of research -- intentional patinas on antic copper-base objects -- lead the AGLAE (Accelerateur Grand Louvre pour l'Analyse Elementaire) team of the C2RMF (Centre de Recherche et de Restauration des Musees de France) to improve its methods of analyzing thin surface layers both in their elemental composition and in-depth elemental distribution. A new beam extraction set-up containing a particle detector has been developed in order to use a 6 MeV alpha beam both in PIXE and RBS mode and to monitor precisely the ion dose received by the sample. Both RBS and ionization cross sections were assessed in order to make sure that the analysis can be quantitative. This set up allows great progresses in the understanding of both nature and structure of this very particular oxide layer obtained in the antiquity by chemical treatment on copper alloys, containing gold and/or silver and presenting very interesting properties of color and stability.Besides the non destructive properties of the IBA in external beam mode, this method of analyzing allows the study of samples in interaction with its environment. This was used to study the high temperature oxidation of Cu-Sn alloys using a furnace developed in order to heat a sample and analyze it in RBS mode at the same time. This new way of studying the growth of oxide layers permits to understand the oxidation mechanism of this system and to propose an experimental model for the identification of oxide layers due to an exposition to a high temperature, model needed for a long time by curators in charge of the study and the conservation of archaeological bronzes.
- OSTI ID:
- 20898633
- Journal Information:
- AIP Conference Proceedings, Vol. 876, Issue 1; Conference: 23. summer school and international symposium on the physics of ionized gases, National Park Kopaonik (Serbia), 28 Aug - 1 Sep 2006; Other Information: DOI: 10.1063/1.2406028; (c) 2006 American Institute of Physics; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0094-243X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Deciphering a removed text on a 16th c. centrepiece: The benefits of using AGLAEMap and AXSIA to process PIXE maps.
Performance and Applications of the first HVE 5MV Tandetron{sup TM} at the University of Madrid