Large Scale Facilities


Our group has a long-term experience in the collaboration with large scale facilities and laboratories, both as users of different beamlines and instrumentation developers. The facilities we used until now are both ions and neutrons sources.


LNL: Legnaro National Laboratories of INFN (Padova, Italy).
We use the microbeam line of the AN2000 particles accelerator, carrying out both micro-PIXE and micro-IBIL measurements in vacuum both on lapis lazuli and on ancient coins. The micro-IBIL setup on the microbeam line have been developed by our group in the last years.

LABEC - LAboratorio di tecniche nucleari per i BEni Culturali of INFN (Sesto Fiorentino, Firenze, Italy).
Thanks to the extracted proton microbeam, we carried out micro-PIXE, micro-PIGE and micro-IBIL measurements on lapis lazuli rocks and artworks. We strongly contributed to the development and improvement of the ionoluminescence apparatus.

AGLAE: Accélerateur Grand Louvre d'Analyse Elémentaire at Centre de Recherche et de Restauration des Musées de France (C2RMF), Palais du Louvre, Paris (France).
We used the extracted proton microbeam to carry out micro-PIXE, micro-PIGE and micro-IBIL measurements on lapis lazuli artworks and archaeological findings from museums. This activity has been funded in the CHARISMA project (Cultural Heritage Advanced Research Infrastructures, Synergy for a Multidisciplinary Approach to conservation/ restoration) of the European Union (FP7). Here an interview to Alessandro Re during measurements.







ISIS: facility of the Science and Technology Facilities Council at Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (Didcot, Oxford, UK).
The beamlines used were INES (Italian Neutron Experimental Station) and GEM (General Materials Diffractometer). We performed both neutron diffraction measurements and neutron imaging and tomography, contributing to the characterisation of the INES imaging setup.

BNC - Budapest Neutron Center (Budapest, Hungary).
We carried out PGAA, TOF and XRF measurements on Celtic coins from the Hungarian National Museum in Budapest, with an experiment approved and funded in the CHARISMA project Cultural Heritage Advanced Research Infrastructures, Synergy for a Multidisciplinary Approach to conservation/restoration) of the European Union (FP7).

FRM II - Forschungs-Neutronenquelle Heinz Maier-Leibnitz (Garching, Munich, Germany).
Nectar beamline: in the framework of the neu_ART project, we carried out neutron imaging and tomography on objects of Cultural Heritage interest, scintillators test and spectrum measurements.