The Early Stage of Neutron Tomography for Cultural Heritage Study in Thailand

Abstract

In parallel to the upgrade of neutron imaging facility at TRR-1/M1 since 2015, the practice on image processing software has led to implementation of neutron tomography (NT). The current setup provides a thermal neutron flux of 1.08×10⁶ cm^-2sec^-1 at the exposure position. In general, the sample was fixed on a plate at the top of rotary stage controlled by Labview 2009 Version 9.0.1. The incremental step can be adjusted from 0.45 to 7.2 degree. A 16 bit CCD camera assembled with a Nikkor 50 mm f/1.2 lens was used to record light from ⁶LiF/ZnS (green) neutron converter screen. The exposure time for each shot was 60 seconds, resulting in the acquisition time of approximately three hours for completely turning the sample around. Afterwards, the batch of two dimensional neutron images of the sample was read into the reconstruction and visualization software Octopus reconstruction 8.8 and Octopus visualization 2.0, respectively. The results revealed that the system alignment is important. Maintaining the stability of heavy sample at every particular angle of rotation is important. Previous alignment showed instability of the supporting plane while tilting the sample. This study showed that the sample stage should be replaced. Even though the NT is a lengthy process and involves large data processing, it offers an opportunity to better understand features of an object in more details than with neutron radiography. The digital NT also allows us to separate inner features that appear superpositioned in radiography by cross-sectioning the 3D data set of an object without destruction. As a result, NT is a significant tool for revealing hidden information included in the inner structure of cultural heritage objects, providing great benefits in archaeological study, conservation process and authenticity investigating.