Museums & Heritage Institutions
Interdisciplinary work linking terahertz instrumentation with conservation science, art history, and heritage diagnostics.
Museums & Heritage Institutions: possible collaboration formats
- Exploratory scientific discussion
- Feasibility measurements
- Joint proposal or consortium preparation
- Component or algorithm co-development
- Student, doctoral, or postdoctoral research
A useful collaboration starts with a clearly stated decision or scientific question. Early exchanges can establish whether terahertz contrast is physically plausible, which samples and references are needed, and whether the work is best framed as an exploratory measurement, a research project, or a longer development programme.
Building a well-defined research collaboration
Scope, data ownership, confidentiality, sample handling, publication expectations, and validation criteria should be agreed early. The project should also define how negative or ambiguous results will be interpreted, because demonstrating the limits of a modality can be as valuable as confirming feasibility.
For consortium work, the strongest projects connect complementary expertise: domain knowledge, sample access, terahertz instrumentation, modelling, signal processing, reference metrology, and a credible route to validation. Historical collaborators named in the source dossier are not presumed to be involved in future proposals.
Related publications
- Art Painting Diagnostic Before Restoration with Terahertz and Millimeter Waves — DOI
- Terahertz frequency modulated continuous wave imaging advanced data processing for art painting analysis — DOI
- Terahertz Spectroscopy and Quantum Mechanical Simulations of Crystalline Copper-Containing Historical Pigments — DOI
The study demonstrates how terahertz (THz) spectroscopy, when coupled with solid‑state density functional theory (ss‑DFT) simulations, provides a powerful, non‑destructive tool for the identification and analysis of copper‑containing historical pigments used in art, manuscripts, and cultural artifacts. By measuring the low‑frequency vibrational fingerprints of azurite, malachite and verdigris and reproducing those fingerprints through first‑principles calculations, the researchers have shown that the observed spectral features arise from specific lattice motions—rotations and translations of carbonate groups in azurite and complex acetate‑based vibrations in verdigris—rather than simple…
- Characterization of Varnish Ageing and its Consequences on Terahertz Imagery: Demonstration on a Painting Presumed of the French Renaissance — DOI
Terahertz (THz) imaging has been demonstrated as a powerful, non‑contact, non‑ionizing technique for probing the internal structure of cultural heritage objects, particularly those mounted on metal supports where conventional optical, X‑ray, or infrared methods fail. In this study, a seventeenth‑century French Renaissance painting on a copper plate was examined using pulsed THz time‑domain spectroscopy and continuous‑wave THz imaging at 2.5 THz and 3.8 THz. By solving an inverse electromagnetic problem, the researchers extracted the dielectric constants and thicknesses of the varnish and paint layers,…
- TeraPulse Lx for terahertz imaging of painting on canvas — DOI
Abstract The goal of this study was to detect and inspect the paint layers below the surface independently of any surface features. Using the for THz-TDS imaging system, we obtained contrast images of layers of paint applied to the back side of the canvas. The most difficult task that the researchers have set themselves has not yet been fully resolved. When we try to read the signatures through several layers of paint, background and canvas, we cannot get a clear image of the letters,…