Potential consequences of ion beam analysis on objects from our cultural heritage: An appraisal

The archaeometric application of IBA is possible because in the majority of cases the working conditions are such that no damage and in particular visible damage is produced on the valuable unique samples. Obviously this does not mean that cultural heritage materials do not experience, like all other, the probe-target interaction and effects, but that the interaction is controllable and kept below safe limits. This work has aimed at establishing within which limits the potential damage is negligible or the analysis is viable on the basis of the benefit/cost ratio, making use of the information which is available not only from archaeometry but also from the more “aggressive” materials science applications of ion beams.