Controlled laser cleaning of artworks via low resolution plasma spectroscopy and linear correlation

In this thesis a system has been developed to prevent polluted artworks for over-cleaning during laser cleaning. One method to monitor the laser cleaning process in-situ is spectroscopic analyzing of the in-process induced plasma emission. The characteristic plasma emission spectrum depends on the elemental constitution of the plasma plume which represents the ablated layer. In this thesis a (low cost) fibre optic spectrometer with a large bandwidth and low resolution was applied. This spectrometer is easy to handle and applicable to different polluted artworks. The advantage of the developed system is that it can be operated by restorers without much previous knowledge about plasma spectroscopy.