Heritage research at the PUMA beamline

Abstract

X-ray scattering (SAXS), as well as elemental speciation by X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS), were soon identified as significant contributions to understand the composition of archaeological and artistic materials. Paleontological work subsequently benefited from imaging capabilities both in 3D (through micro-computed tomography (µCT))[3], later from scanning XRF, XAS and XRD [4-10] and even from X-ray Raman scattering (XRS) spectroscopy and imaging [11,12]. To facilitate the access for these new user groups, it was decided to build both a beamline specialized for the needs of the community at the French national synchrotron light source SOLEIL, located on the Paris-Saclay campus south-west of Paris, and a support research platform, IPANEMA [13]. The goal was to offer a beamline with synchrotron techniques often used by the community, while being complementary to the portfolio of techniques already available at SOLEIL. The beamline and accompanying procedures were optimized to take into account several specific requirements of heritage materials, particularly their physico-chemical heterogeneity, their fragility, and the need to search for local information in large samples [14]. The name "PUMA" was chosen for the new beamline as an abbreviation for "Photons utilisés pour les Matériaux Anciens" ("Photons used for Ancient Materials"