The cleaning of works of art made from metal with laser radiation at wavelengths of 1.06 and 10.6μm

Холодова С.И., Горячкин Д.А., Ковальчук Л.В., Смирнов С.А. Очистка произведений искусства из металла лазерным излучением на длинах волн 1,06 и 10,6 мкм // Оптический журнал. 2010. Т. 77. № 5. С. 11–17.

Kholodova S.I., Goryachkin D.A., Kovalchuk L.V., Smirnov S.A. The cleaning of works of art made from metal with laser radiation at wavelengths of 1.06 and 10.6μm [in Russian] // Opticheskii Zhurnal. 2010. V. 77. № 5. P. 11–17.

S. I. Kholodova, D. A. Goryachkin, L. V. Koval’chuk, and S. A. Smirnov, "The cleaning of works of art made from metal with laser radiation at wavelengths of 1.06 and 10.6μm," Journal of Optical Technology. 77(5), 303-308 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1364/JOT.77.000303

The restoration community has shown great interest in recent years in the laser cleaning of objects of history and culture. This paper presents a study of using the radiation of Nd:YAG and CO2 lasers to clean articles made from steel and silver. It is shown that laser cleaning makes it possible to solve a number of problems that are virtually insoluble by traditional methods in restoration. It is also established that the Nd:YAG laser in most cases is a more effective tool than the TEA CO2 laser for the laser cleaning of metallic objects of art.

The authors are thankful to Sherstobitov V.E. for the support of the research and useful discussion.