A new small-footprint external-beam PIXE facility for cultural heritage applications using pulsed proton beams

• DOI: 10.1016/j.nimb.2017.02.045
• Publication Date: 2017-03-06T07:45:23Z
• Authors: M. Vadrucci; G. Bazzano; F. Borgognoni; M. Chiari; A. Mazzinghi; L. Picardi; C. Ronsivalle; C. Ruberto; F. Taccetti
• Keywords: 03 medical and health sciences; 0302 clinical medicine; cultural heritage; external beam; PIXE; proton beam linear accelerator; nuclear and high energy physics; instrumentation; 11. Sustainability; Cultural heritage; External beam; PIXE; Proton beam linear accelerator; 7. Clean energy

Abstract In the framework of the COBRA project, elemental analyses of cultural heritage objects based on the particle induced X-ray emission (PIXE) are planned in a collaboration between the APAM laboratory of ENEA-Frascati and the LABEC laboratory of INFN in Florence. With this aim a 3–7 MeV pulsed proton beam, driven by the injector of the protontherapy accelerator under construction for the TOP-IMPLART project, will be used to demonstrate the feasibility of the technique with a small-footprint pulsed accelerator to Italian small and medium enterprises interested in the composition analysis of ancient artifacts. The experimental set-up for PIXE analysis on the TOP-IMPLART machine consists of a modified assembly of the vertical beam line usually dedicated to radiobiology experiments: the beam produced by the injector (RFQ + DTL, a PL7 ACCSYSHITACHI model) is bent to 90° by a magnet, is collimated by a 300 μm aperture inserted in the end nozzle and extracted into ambient pressure by an exit window consisting of a Upilex foil 7.5 μm thick. The beam is pulsed with a variable pulse duration of 20–100 μs and a repetition rate variable from 10 to 100 Hz. The X-ray detection system is based on a Ketek Silicon Drift Detector (SDD) with 7 mm2 active area and 450 μm thickness, with a thin Beryllium entrance window (8 μm). The results of the calibration of this new PIXE set-up using thick target standards and of the analysis of the preliminary measurements on pigments are presented.