Increased availability and use of ‘non-invasive’ analytical techniques in recent years, have called into question traditional assumptions of non-invasiveness of laser-based techniques and latest research developments have shown that it is essential to assess the extent of it for Raman spectroscopy, as particular compounds such as pigments may be highly altered/damaged upon laser radiation even at low laser intensity. In the present research, damage processes of oil paintings with historical pigments under CW lasers, with different excitation wavelength, laser intensity and fluence, are investigated with a monitoring set-up combining Raman spectroscopy, VIS-NIR reflectance spectroscopy and IR thermography.
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