Spectroscopy, Diffraction and Tomography in Art and Heritage Science

Spectroscopy, Diffraction and Tomography in Art and Heritage Science gives an overview of the main spectroscopy and diffraction techniques currently available for cultural heritage research. It starts with an introductory, general discussion of spectroscopy and diffraction and the kinds of information they can give. Further sections deal with, respectively, typical laboratory methods, mobile equipment, and large-scale instruments and infrastructural methods. The work concludes with comments on combining and comparing multiple techniques, sources of error, and limitations of the analytical methods.

• Explains spectroscopy and diffraction techniques in detail, yet remains accessible to those without a chemistry or physics background
• Provides explanations of commonly used terms, such as destructive, non-destructive, non-invasive, in-situ, and ex-situ, and their sometimes-misleading origins
• Includes real-world examples that demonstrate how each technique is used in the field
• Highlights the complementary use of different analytical techniques in fully interpreting the data

Professor of Analytical Chemistry at Ghent University (Belgium). Graduated with a PhD in Analytical Chemistry in 1993 from the University of Antwerp (Belgium), where she was involved in the optimization of new technologies for inorganic micro and trace analysis. Current research involves the use of synchrotron spectroelectrochemistry for monitoring and treatment of corroded metallic objects. She has gained expertise for over 25 years in the interdisciplinary field of science and cultural heritage. Her contributions to the latter field include chairmanship of COST Action G8 “Non-destructive Analysis and Testing of Museum Objects”, vice-chairmanship of COST Action D42 “Chemical Interactions between Cultural Artefacts and Indoor Environment” and vice-chairmanship of the European Federation of Corrosion Working Party 21: “Corrosion of Archaeological and Historical Artifacts”.

Emeritus Professor in Physics at The University of Warwick, UK. He gained his PhD from the City of London Polytechnic in 1977 after constructing one of the UK’s earliest static SIMS instruments. Moving to Warwick in 1986, he pursued a career in instrument and technique development being responsible for several innovations underpinning the ultra low energy SIMS technique such as the floating low energy ion gun (FLIG) and the SIMS depth resolution function (Dowsett-Rowlands function). In 2003 he switched fields to develop instrumentation for synchrotron spectroelectrochemistry and spectromicroscopy and is responsible for a range of environmental cells, a XEOL microscope and in-situ x-ray diffraction methodologies all applied to heritage science.