Service: Remote to Close Range Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS)
Platforms
Molab
Techniques
No
techniques found
Organization
United Kingdom
Service contact persons
Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) is a micro-destructive technique that gives elemental analysis of materials through analysing the plume created by ablation of the material by a high intensity laser beam focused to a spot <1mm. LIBS is sensitive to nearly all elements. Remote LIBS allows the analysis of monuments and objects from distances up to tens of metres. It is especially suited to applications on architectural and archaeological sites.
An in-house developed remote LIBS system. The instrumentation uses a Nd:Yag pulsed laser at 1064nm with pulse duration ~5ns that focuses 40mJ of light into a spot size of ~1 mm to ablate the material. The pulse energy can be adjusted and can ablate successive layers in depth by applying multiple laser pulses. A telescope collects light from the plume and directs it through a fibre to a set of spectrometers covering the range from ~200nm to ~900nm with spectral resolution of ~0.2nm. Both the laser and the collection optics are placed on computer controlled pan/tilt stages. A small camera is attached to record the area of analysis.
Fields of application
Archaeological conservation
Archaeology
Art history
Materials
pigments and dyes on any substrate
Other information
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Input: Colour image of the object or region of interest; Information on room layout and distance to the object/structure
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Output: detailed high resolution colour images around the position where the LIBS analysis was taken. ASCII meta data file; All data are linked through the MAPSI app with measured positions marked and any comments on the data.