EPJ Plus Focus Point on Advances in Photonics for Heritage Science: Developments, Applications and Case Studies

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Published on 14 October 2022

Guest Editors: Daniela Comelli, Austin Nevin & Gianluca Valentini

Photonics is the science of light and is considered one of the key enabling technologies for innovation in all industries. New photonic applications are emerging in various fields, such as environmental monitoring and medicine. The same technological innovation is being adopted in the field of heritage science, where photonics is the foundation for the application of a range of non-invasive, non-contact, and often portable devices for studying works of art and artistic materials.

In this Focus Point on “Advances in Photonics for Heritage Science: Developments, Applications and Case Studies”, the guest editors have selected seventeen papers that present a range of optical and photonics-based techniques, highlighting their advantages and limitations, as well as current and future applications to study our heritage.

Manuscripts deal with (i) the use and optimization of new photonics-based techniques, (ii) new methods of data analysis based on multivariate statistics, by showing how they are essential when dealing with high-dimensional spectroscopy datasets, (iii) case studies that describe the analysis of specific works of art, often highlighting the importance of a multi-analytical approach that is required to understand the complexity of highly heterogeneous materials, (iv) the photo-physical study of pigments and their degradation.

In the future photonics-based techniques will undoubtedly continue to develop and will play an important role in the analysis, conservation and access to our cultural heritage.

All articles are available here and are freely accessible until 5 December 2022. For further information read the Editorial