Development of an external beam nuclear microprobe on the Aglae facility of the Louvre museum

Gold traces to trace gold

“…Being a near-surface technique (less than 30 mm for gold), the measurement is influenced by the heterogeneity of the surface (copper is eliminated from the surface of gold alloys by oxidation). However, PIXE has the advantage of using external m-beams and providing elemental maps [5] as well as, together with RBS, elemental depth concentration profiles [9].…”

Compositional studies on Transylvanian gold nuggets: Advantages and limitations of PIXE–PIGE analysis

“…PIXE and PIGE measurements on fragments from these nuggets were performed at the AGLAE tandem accelerator of the C2RMF, located in the basement of the Louvre Museum [15,16], with a 3 MeV proton beam, extracted into air. 200 Â 200 lm 2 areas on each sample were scanned in front of the micro-beam ($100 lm in diameter), in order to obtain average concentrations, and to avoid any odd result due to possible inclusions or sample inhomogeneity.…”

PIXE measurements of Renaissance silverpoint drawings at VERA

“…For minimizing the beam diameter two carbon collimators are used: a 1.0 mm hole to ensure the correct direction of the beam, and a second one of about 120 lm to reduce the beam diameter. The transmission of the beam from the vacuum environment to atmosphere has to be through an ultra-thin window with the following constraints: (i) good mechanical resistance to withstand the 1 bar pressure-difference; (ii) minimum energy loss and minimum angular straggling; (iii) resistance to radiation damage; (iv) minimum background radiation [6]. We utilize a 100 nm Si 3 N 4 membrane, 1.0 Â 1.0 mm 2 in size, framed by Si (2.7 Â 2.7 mm 2 , thickness 0.2 mm) [6].…”