Analysis of cultural heritage by synchrotron radiation and visible light-near infrared spectroscopy

Introduction Cultural heritage refers to artifacts and intangible features inherited from previous generations, which are preserved or maintained for the benefit of future generations. In the past, interests in cultural heritage are mainly based on its aesthetic and historic values. However during the recent years, it has been attracting the attention of scientists and engineers because of the technical challenges it presents during analysis, restoration and preservation. Its delicate nature requires that the investigation should be non-destructive and noninvasive. Among the available analytical techniques, synchrotron radiation-based analysis offers high precision and high accuracy in addition to being non-destructive [1]. On the other hand, a technique utilizing visible light and near infrared radiation is able to complement the insufficiencies of high-energy techniques. Synchrotron radiation (SR) and visible light-near infrared spectroscopy (VL-NIS) were used to study some important aspects of cultural heritage analysis.