A New Synchrotron Approach to Study Ancient Materials: UV/Visible Photoluminescence Micro-Imaging

Photoluminescence has been exploited to characterize materials non-destructively since the early development of scientific studies on archaeological and cultural heritage materials [1]. First used as tool for qualitative visual examination of objects, luminescence spectroscopy, carried out at macroand micro-scale, allowed characterizing luminescence properties of cultural heritage and artists’ materials, such as organic binders or inorganic colorants [2]. More recently, multi-spectral imaging spectroscopy techniques have allowed to collect more quantitative information by combining the recording of spectroscopic data for each pixels of the image collected [3].