THz Research & Development Network

Source: thznetwork.org.

In the framework of the Agreement between the Government of Italy and the Government of Japan on cooperation in Science and Technology in the years 2008-2009, the Joint Committee of the Delegations of Japan and Italy selected eighteen significant bilateral projects in the priority areas of Basic Sciences (Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, Biology), Life Sciences (including Health, Biotechnology, Agriculture), Space, Earth Science and Climate change, Energy, Information and Communication Technology, Robotics and Production Technologies, Nanosciences, Advanced Materials, Technologies applied to Cultural Heritage.

The project THz-ARTE “Terahertz Advanced Research TEchniques for non-invasive analysis in art conservation” jointly coordinated by the Department of Physical Technologies and New Materials at ENEAFrascati (Dr. Gian Piero Gallerano) and by the National Institute of Information and Communication Technology – Tokyo (Dr. Kaori Fukunaga), has been selected in the area of Technologies applied to Cultural Heritage.

The main objective of THz-ARTE is the demonstration of terahertz spectroscopy and reflective terahertz imaging as new non-destructive analysis tools of art objects, including paintings, murals, coloured or varnished sculpture and coloured furniture.

The project is addressing in particular:

- The comparison of different spectroscopic techniques in various frequency ranges from the near IR to the microwave region and the setup of a THz database for art materials;

- The investigation of hidden, stratified and plaster covered paintings by reflective THz imaging techniques that may lead to the identification of original layers;

- Research on ageing mechanism of art materials and proposals on accelerated ageing test of new materials for conservation.

The Japanese group at NICT has firstly applied THz spectroscopy to art analysis and has developed an open database of art materials with Tohoku University and RIKEN [see IEICE Electronic Express, 4 (2007) 258-263 and Researchers develop new method to expose art forgeries].

The ENEA-Frascati team has a long standing expertise in the development of THz sources, detectors and instrumentation. ENEA-Frascati operates two compact Free Electron Laser sources covering the spectral range from 90 to 150 GHz and from 0.4 to 0.7 THz respectively. The ENEA team is employing these sources together with far infrared gas lasers and solid state oscillators to perform reflective THz imaging on a variety of samples in the biological, environmental and art conservation fields with sub-wavelength resolution [Proceedings of the IEEE - 95, No. 8 (2007) 1666-1678].

The collaboration is strengthened by the participation of Ing. Maurizio Seracini of Editech, Florence, a scientist with over 30 years expertise in the field of non-invasive diagnostics of fine arts, who will contribute with the preparation of samples and with the choice of sites for on-field measurements.

Preliminary measurements on non-invasive diagnostics for multilayered art objects have been conducted at ENEA-Frascati in collaboration with NICT utilizing a reflective imaging set-up at 150

GHz capable of characterising small area (5 x 5 cm2) samples with 0.2 mm spatial resolution [Proc. of the IRMMW-THz2005, art.no. 1572505 (2005) 255-256].

Results on the imaging of painting covered by gesso have been reported at the “Workshop on Infrared spectroscopy and microscopy” WIRMS-2007 held at Awaji Island – Japan in September 2007.