Study Ancient Pigment Structure by Using Advanced Characterization Techniques

Advanced characterization techniques in the field of materials science, such as transmission electron microcopy (TEM), atom probe tomography (APT), provide both microstructure characterization and quantitative chemical analysis up to atomic level. In particular, the APT technique uniquely provides both atoms’ positions and their chemical identities in real three-dimensional space at a near-atom resolution. In previous researches, these techniques were hardly used in the field of cultural heritage science. In this presentation, the capabilities of scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Scanning-TEM, APT and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) techniques at the newly built Microscopy and Characterization Suite at Center for Advanced Energy Studies, are discussed through an example of characterizing a 50 µm 2000-year-ago pigment particle at nanometer level. Focused ion beam (FIB) with lift-out technique is used in preparing TEM and APT samples. The ability to directly visualize the internal structure provides exciting opportunities for materials analysis in cultural heritage science.