Double laser LIBS and micro-XRF spectroscopy applied to characterize materials coming from the Greek-Roman theater of Taormina

Abstract

The laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) is an applied physical technique that has shown, in recent years, its great potential for rapid qualitative analysis of materials. The possibility to implement a portable instrument that perform LIBS analysis makes this technique particularly useful for in situ analysis in the field of cultural heritages. The aim of this work is to compare the results, obtained by LIBS measurements with X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) ones, on calcareous and refractory materials coming from the Greek-Roman theater of Taormina. Calibration curves for LIBS and XRF were obtained by measuring certified reference materials and using them as standards. LIBS measurements were performed with a new mobile instrument Modi (Mobile Double pulse Instrument for LIBS Analysis) that use an innovative experimental set-up, based on the use of two suitably retarded laser pulses that greatly improves the potential of this technique for accurate quantitative analysis. XRF analyses were performed with a portable instrument ArtTAX that use a collimated X-Ray beam equipped with a fluxing system of helium gas on the detection path to the aim to detect the lighter elements with a good accuracy. LIBS results have shown that this technique is highly subjected to the sample chemical and physical characteristics.