The CERN PIXE-RFQ, a transportable proton accelerator for the machina project

Over the years, transportable instrumentation for cultural heritage (CH) in situ measurements has noticeably widespread, due to logistic, economical and safety reasons. Ion beam analysis, a powerful set of analytical techniques, of great importance for CH, is instead carried out by using fixed instrumentation. To overcome this limit, the Italian national Institute of Nuclear Physics (INFN), CERN (European Centre for Nuclear Research) and the Opificio delle Pietre Dure (OPD), started MACHINA, the “Movable Accelerator for CH In-situ Non-destructive Analysis: the new generation of accelerators for art” to build a transportable accelerator, compact, with strongly reduced weight, absorbed power and cost. MACHINA will be installed at the OPD and dedicated to CH. It will be moved to major conservation centres and museums, when needed. The INFN-CERN proposal, approved in December 2017, became operative in February 2018. 2018 was dedicated to the acquisition of material/instrumentations, to set up both a dummy accelerator (to test the vacuum system) and a vacuum chamber (to test the source). Due to COVID, in 2020 and 2021 the experimental work was slowed down, but we kept developing the control electronics/software and built the second-generation supporting structure. The HF-RFQ power supplies were integrated in October 2021. At the rise of 2022, after conditioning the cavities, we tested the system and in March 2022 we got the first extracted 2-MeV proton beam. In this paper, we present the structure of the MACHINA system, the approach followed and the main solutions adopted, with a special focus on the control system, and finally the first experimental results.

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“…The construction process and all the details of the PIXE-RFQ are described in Mathot et al (2019). We will remind here only the essentials.…”

Section: Hf-rfq Acceleratormentioning

confidence: 99%

MACHINA, the Movable Accelerator for Cultural Heritage In-situ Non-destructive Analysis: project overview

Taccetti

Castelli

Chiari

et al. 2023

Rend. Fis. Acc. Lincei

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“…The strong demand of scientific analysis for conservation and preservation of works of art led to the project of an instrument with the same performance as the standard IBA techniques (effectiveness and sensitivity, non-invasiveness and non-destructiveness), with the additional features of transportability, lightness, and low power consumption. To answer the query, the INFN-CHNet group, in collaboration with the Conseil Europèen pour la Recherce Nuclèaire (CERN) and the Opificio delle Pietre Dure (OPD) in Florence, a world-renowned conservation institution, has started the MACHINA project [62], an accelerator of about 600 kg weight, with a footprint of about 2.5 m × 1.6 m, services included, and a power consumption of a few kW. It will produce 2 MeV proton beams thanks to a RadioFrequency source and an high-frequency RFQ accelerating part.…”

Section: The Machina Projectmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Role of PIXE and XRF in Heritage Science: The INFN-CHNet LABEC Experience

et al. 2022

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Analytical techniques play a fundamental role in heritage science. Among them, Particle Induced X-ray Emission (PIXE) and X-ray Fluorescence (XRF) techniques are widely used in many laboratories for elemental composition analysis. Although they are well-established, a strong effort is put on their upgrade, making them suitable for more and more applications. Over the years, at the INFN-LABEC (the laboratory of nuclear techniques for the environment and cultural heritage of the Italian National Institute of Nuclear Physics), the INFN-CHNet group, the network devoted to cultural heritage, has carried out many technological improvements to the PIXE and XRF set-ups for the analysis of works of art and archaeological finds. Among the many, we recall here the scanning external microbeam facility at the TANDEM accelerator and the MA-XRF scanner. The two instruments have shown complementary features: the former permits quantitative analysis of elements heavier than sodium, which is not possible with the latter in most of the case studies. On the contrary, the scanner has the undeniable advantage of portability, allowing it to work in situ. In this framework of technological developments in heritage science, INFN, CERN, and OPD are jointly carrying on the MACHINA (Movable Accelerator for Cultural Heritage In-situ Non-destructive Analysis) project for on-site Ion Beam Analysis (IBA) studies on cultural heritage.

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“…Therefore, with the goal of building a transportable instrumentation to be used for IBA also outside an accelerator laboratory, a project (MACHINA, Movable Accelerator for Cultural Heritage In situ Non-destructive Analysis) has been launched at LABEC as a joint initiative with the technical division of CERN. At CERN, relying on their huge experience in accelerator technologies, a dedicated, very compact RFQ (Radio-Frequency Quadrupole) proton accelerator (2 MeV proton energy, 1 m long) [ 62 ] has been built for this specific purpose. At LABEC, we have designed and built the pre-acceleration and the high-energy beamlines, the final external beam PIXE-PIGE-EBS set-up, and developed the driving control electronics and software for the whole apparatus, as well as for the vacuum systems.…”

Section: Instrumentation For In Situ Cultural Heritage Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

LABEC, the INFN ion beam laboratory of nuclear techniques for environment and cultural heritage

et al. 2021

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The LABEC laboratory, the INFN ion beam laboratory of nuclear techniques for environment and cultural heritage, located in the Scientific and Technological Campus of the University of Florence in Sesto Fiorentino, started its operational activities in 2004, after INFN decided in 2001 to provide our applied nuclear physics group with a large laboratory dedicated to applications of accelerator-related analytical techniques, based on a new 3 MV Tandetron accelerator. The new accelerator greatly improved the performance of existing Ion Beam Analysis (IBA) applications (for which we were using since the 1980s an old single-ended Van de Graaff accelerator) and in addition allowed to start a novel activity of Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS), in particular for 14C dating. Switching between IBA and AMS operation became very easy and fast, which allowed us high flexibility in programming the activities, mainly focused on studies of cultural heritage and atmospheric aerosol composition, but including also applications to biology, geology, material science and forensics, ion implantation, tests of radiation damage to components, detector performance tests and low-energy nuclear physics. This paper describes the facilities presently available in the LABEC laboratory, their technical features and some success stories of recent applications.

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The CERN PIXE-RFQ, a transportable proton accelerator for the machina project

Cited by 18 publications

References 2 publications

MACHINA, the Movable Accelerator for Cultural Heritage In-situ Non-destructive Analysis: project overview

MACHINA, the Movable Accelerator for Cultural Heritage In-situ Non-destructive Analysis: project overview

The Role of PIXE and XRF in Heritage Science: The INFN-CHNet LABEC Experience

LABEC, the INFN ion beam laboratory of nuclear techniques for environment and cultural heritage

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