Experimental study on the effect of wavelength in the laser cleaning of silver threads

Abstract

Laser removal of surface contaminants on silver threads was carried out using Nd:YAG laser radiations from near infrared (1064 nm) through visible (532 nm) to ultraviolet (266 nm) produced by frequency harmonic generation. The thread in the museum textile was made of silver and silk in which the silver ribbon wraps the bunch of silk fibres. The goal of this work is to find a feasibility to clean the tarnished silver without any damage of the underlying silk since the conventional chemical treatment is problematic to apply in this specific specimen. From the results, it was found that the laser wavelength of 266 nm is most appropriate to clean the silver surface without causing any damage either to the silver or the silk surfaces while 1064 nm wavelength easily causes damages such as melting and burning to the silver as well as the silk inside. © 2003 Éditions scientifiques et médicales Elsevier SAS. 'All rights reserved.