PageContent

Neutron Imaging for Cultural HEritage

Local Coordinator: Maria Pia Morigi
National Coordinator: Nicia Gelli (Fi), Francesco Grazzi (Fi)
Research Units: Bo, Fi, MiB, Pv, To
Duration: 2020-2022

Local group: Albertin Fauzia, Bettuzzi Matteo, Brancaccio Rosa, M. Seracini

The project is part of the CHNet network and aims at implementing a new facility  for neutron radiography and tomoghapy at the LENA laboratory  in Pavia, already hosting the TRIGA reactor,  so as to realize the first national system for neutron imaging dedicated to cultural heritage

The new facility will complement the instrumentation already present in the CHNet network and will widen its range of available technologies.

+ Read more
The Bologna group has long-lasting experience in the development of innovative data-acquisition systems for X-ray tomoghaphy dedicated to cultural heritage, and will take part in the characterisation of the detector  – a scintillator screen optically coupled with a CCD or CMOS camera in custom configuration – in the first year of the project. 

The scintillator, which converts into visible light the neutron beam transmitted through the sample under investigation,  is a key ingredient of the imaging system: its thickness, together with the properties of the material by which it is realized, strongly affects the detector response in terms of efficiency and spacial resolution. Measurements of both attenuation and spacial resolution on specifically built test-samples will be needed to characterize the overall performance of the apparatus. Once the experimental setup is ready, measurements with both neutron and X-ray tomoghraphy will be performed on the same test-samples and artworks from museums. The Bologna group, in addition to the analysis of X-ray tomography, is in charge of the digital combination of the two kinds of data.