Short-pulse laser cleaning for Australian heritage conservation

保护文物是一门要求很高的学科，需要一套技术来解决不同的问题。在国外，使用长脉冲技术的激光清洗在去除离散的材料块时留下微小的损伤，并且不适合许多材料。我们已经开发了一种短脉冲激光工艺，它可以以可控的方式一个分子一个分子地去除材料，并且一旦达到最终效果，就可以很容易地停止。我们将研究将这种技术应用于澳大利亚独特的遗产材料，这些材料对澳大利亚战争纪念馆、澳大利亚皇家空军、海军和陆军博物馆、澳大利亚艺术实验室和新南威尔士州美术馆的具体保护需求非常重要。

Conserving heritage objects is a demanding discipline, requiring a suite of techniques for different problems. Overseas, laser cleaning using long pulse techniques leaves microscopic damage as discrete chunks of material are removed, and is unsuitable for many materials. We have developed a short pulse laser process which can remove material molecule-by-molecule in a controlled fashion, and which can be readily halted once the final finish is achieved. We will research this technique for application to unique Australian heritage materials that are important to the specific conservation needs of the Australian War Memorial, the RAAF, Navy and Army Museums, Artlab Australia, and the Art Gallery of NSW.