Journal of Cultural Heritage 4 (2003) 72s–76s

www.elsevier.com/locate/culher

A variable pulse width Nd:YAG laser for conservation

Renzo Salimbeni *, Roberto Pini, Salvatore Siano
Istituto di Elettronica Quantistica – CNR, Via Panciatichi 56/30, 50127 Florence, Italy

Abstract

Photoablation is a physical process employed for the cleaning of artefacts. While several authors have reported investigations concerning
the dependence of the effects induced on the material for different laser wavelengths, no similar investigations have been reported so far
about the dependence on the pulse duration, in spite of its importance being recognised. In order to approach this issue and optimise the
interaction process on different materials, a new Q-switched Nd:YAG laser system with variable pulse width for cleaning applications was
designed and built at the Quantum Electronics Institute in Florence. It provides an extended pulse duration in respect of the standard
Q-switched regime, by means of interchangeable optical fibres in the resonator. The new laser allows to change the pulse duration in the
range between tens and hundreds of nanoseconds up to several microseconds. According to our experience, the adjustment of the pulse
duration in this range may avoid the possibility of strong mechanical forces and excessive heating in the substrate, as it has been observed
with standard Nd:YAG laser systems. The laser may be proposed for an accurate cleaning in a variety of restoration problems and materials.
© 2003 Éditions scientifiques et médicales Elsevier SAS. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Nd:YAG laser; Laser cleaning; Conservation; Cultural heritage

1. Introduction variety of materials in cultural heritage conservation. A

Nd:YAG laser systems have been devised in view of
specific applications, with two standard operating regimes:
Q-switching and free-running operations. This turns out in
two independent ranges of pulse widths: nanoseconds to a
few tens of nanoseconds for the former, and hundreds of
microseconds to milliseconds for the latter.
No practical interest was given to the possibility to
achieve laser pulse widths in the intermediate range of
hundreds of nanoseconds to tens of microseconds, except
for special prototypes developed for research. The main
reasons for this were the lack of real applications requiring
a laser characterised by a variable pulse width.
Recently, there has been a special interest in laser
cleaning of artefacts. In this field, different materials may
require a laser pulse width ranging from nanoseconds to
microseconds, in order to optimise the cleaning results.
In this paper, a solution is presented for a versatile and
accurate use of Nd:YAG lasers in the cleaning of a large
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +39-55-416128; fax. +39-55-414612.
E-mail address: salimbeni@ieq.fi.cnr.it (R. Salimbeni).
© 2003 Éditions scientifiques et médicales Elsevier SAS. All rights reserved.
PII: S 1 2 9 6 - 2 0 7 4 ( 0 2 ) 0 1 1 4 9 - 4
variable pulse width Nd:YAG laser has been devised and
constructed. The output parameters demonstrate the possi-
bility to optimise the cleaning phase in a restoration
procedure as well as any other ablation process for a wide
variety of materials.
2. Dependence of the ablation side effects upon
the pulse width
A quantitative estimation of the optimum pulse duration
for the laser cleaning treatment of material alteration has not
yet been determined for many conservation problems. A
possible answer is that standard Q-switching Nd:YAG lasers
operating at the fundamental wavelength of 1064 nm and
with a typical pulse duration of 5–20 ns are good enough. In
the literature, this is frequently reported, with many kinds of
artefacts cleaned essentially by means of a fast vaporisation
associated with an intense photomechanical effect. The
reason for the large number of experiments reported so far
with standard Q-switched lasers is straightforward: they are
offered on the market with a well-established technology,
their cost is acceptable, their experimental utilisation pro-
 R. Salimbeni et al. / Journal of Cultural Heritage 4 (2003) 72s–76s
vides better results for a selection of problems than other
traditional techniques.
Nevertheless in many reports [1–4], the use of
Q-switched lasers on stones was debated, with still open
issues, such as colouring or discolouring effects, the most
safe intensity range to avoid dense plasma formation over
the surface and undesired side effects.
Some authors [5,6] have taken advantage of the fact that
standard Q-switched Nd:YAG lasers may provide various
wavelengths at the first (1064 nm), second (532 nm), third
(355 nm) and fourth (266 nm) harmonics, investigating
what is the dependence of the cleaning result not only on the
cleaning rate, but also in terms of quality of the surface left,
discoloured or not, the induced average roughness.
Our consideration was differently based on the impor-
tance of the laser duration on the quality of the cleaning
result, and that only the lack of a laser system capable of
varying the duration has hindered so far such experiments.
In fact only a few authors have reported experiments and
evaluations concerning lasers with different pulse duration.
Liu and Garmire [7], for example, examined a wide range of
laser types (and duration) to estimate running costs for
graffiti removal. In a previous work [8], we did a compari-
son between the dynamics of the material blown off and the
ultrasonic shock wave generated over the surface during the
laser irradiation, for Nd:YAG lasers with different pulse
duration: 6 ns, 20 µs and 200 µs. The change in the pulse
duration was in this work very drastic, involving the two
well-known operative regimes of standard Nd:YAG lasers,
Q-switching (6 ns) and Free-Running or Normal Mode for
some authors (200 µs). The system operating at 20 µs in a
Short Free-Running Mode (SFR) was developed specifi-
cally to work at an intermediate duration in order to avoid
either strong mechanical effects or excessive substrate
heating.
The results of this laser, denominated Smart Clean in its
commercial version, were excellent in the cleaning inter-
ventions of very important stone masterpieces such as
statues (Abacuc by Donatello) carried on by the Opificio of
Pietre Dure in Florence, and monuments [9] (Mausoleum of
Teodorico). We demonstrated the possibility to achieve a
very gradual removal of the encrustation, without any
observable colouring/discolouring on the substrate surface.
For many other stones, such as pliocene sandstone and
various limestones, this SFR laser performed very precise
cleaning as well, preserving patinas and removing many
kinds of deteriorated layers, examples are gypsum based
crusts and fluorosilicate coatings coming from previous old
treatments.
The main characteristic of this laser is essentially a
photothermal removal, with an operative fluence higher than
for Q-switching, but with the advantage of a less critical
fluence range. A fluence of 1–2 J/cm2 is typical, but also
much higher values do not induce any damage on various
lithotypes, as observed during the validation tests. Thus, for
example, for white marbles, fluences above 50 J/cm2 can
73s
still provide safe conditions. For Q-switched lasers, the
typical operative fluences are in the range 0.1–1.5 J/cm2.
Higher values can easily induce critical photomechanical
effects due to thermoelastic spallation of strata with a not
negligible absorption or to the shock wave associated with
a dense plasma expansion, in case of highly absorbing
encrustation components.
With the SFR operation, at 20 µs, the photomechanical
effects are practically absent, and the operation becomes
uncritical and much more relaxing for the operator.
The availability of Nd:YAG lasers with different duration
gave us the possibility to appreciate the advantages achiev-
able with the slightly extended Q-switched pulses for
materials other than stones. This was clearly showed in a
cleaning test of a coated bronze [10]. The alteration removal
induced by using a prolonged pulse width Q-switched laser
(40 ns), with a low fluence, was very effective and precise
without any counter-backeffect on the substrate.
About the need that different materials may be better
treated using suitable laser pulse duration, other consider-
ations come out from the physical analysis of the two main
effects excited during the laser treatment: the photome-
chanical and the photothermal effects.
The photomechanical effect induced by Q-switched
pulses produces peak pressure values from tens to hundreds
of bars [8] due to the shock wave dynamic. In many cases,
such peak pressures, corresponding to the operative fluence
range for Q-switched pulses, are not acceptable. Thus, for
example, our explanation for the frequent whitening and
spotting on the Ca-oxalate layer cleaned with Q-switched
pulses at the operative fluence (<1 J/cm2) is the thermoelas-
tic generation, which may be strong enough to detach small
fragments as a single pulse effect.
A prolonged pulse duration, and conversely a lower peak
intensity would avoid overpressure, in both cases of ther-
moelastic or plasma-mediated ablation regimes. Actually all
the possible photoacoustic generations are proportional to
the laser intensity.
A duration in the range of microseconds would com-
pletely avoid any strong force acting on the material, so that
more friable stones would be better treated, but with some
losses of effectiveness for well-coherent metals, patinas or
coatings.
On the side of the thermal effect, a frequently considered
condition to avoid substrate heating is that the vaporisation-
wave is faster than the thermal conduction wave, so that
only a negligible amount of energy deposited by radiation
can be lost outside the borders of the material blow off.
More precisely the heating of the surrounding material is
negligible if no irreversible change of the status of the
material is determined by the heating. The simple schemes
reported in Fig. 1 describe the two typical situations: a
thermally confined condition of the material removal, and a
not confined condition.
74s R. Salimbeni et al. / Journal of Cultural Heritage 4 (2003) 72s–76s

Fig. 2. Stratigraphic scheme of a general case of deterioration of a coated

Fig. 1. Stratigraphic schemes of the thermally confined (left) and not
confined (right) conditions for various ranges of laser pulse duration in the
cleaning of stones.
Lopt is the optical penetration depth, which in saturated
conditions can be assumed coincident with the ablation
depth. The thermal diffusion length, defined as
Ztherm = 2(DτL)1/2,
represents the spatial extent of the heating, i.e. the depth at
which the temperature rise by thermal conductivity is
reduced to ∆T(Ztherm) = 0.09 ∆T(Z = 0).
Hence short and medium duration pulses may determine
a thermal confinement (Ztherm < Zopt) according to the ther-
mal diffusivity D of the material. In Table 1, the value of D
and the extension of Ztherm in various stones and metals are
reported for different pulse durations.
In conclusion, considering that each laser shot typically
removes several tens of microns of black gypsum crust with
short Q-switched pulses, and some tens of microns with the
experimented 20 µs pulses, for all the duration range con-
sidered here, the laser cleaning of stones takes place in
thermally confined condition.
Table 1 reports also that metals would need short pulses,
but for metals, the optical absorption occurs in nanometer
thickness, so the concept of confinement cannot apply for
microsecond or nanosecond pulses. In Fig. 2, a typical
situation is reported, where an inorganic crust composed of
dust, soil, carbon deposit remains over mineralised layers
and finally over patina or coated metal. In this case, a
transition between a thermally confined removal of the
crust, and a conductive phase irradiation of the coating
metal will take place, as long as the latter remains exposed
to further irradiation.
Table 1
Thermal diffusion length Ztherm, in various stones and metals for different pulse duration
Material Thermal diffusivity
D (cm2/s)
τL = 10 ns
Water 0.00144 0.076
Carbonatic stone 0.007 0.17
Sandstone 0.0118 0.21
Gold 1.18 2.2
Copper 1.14 2.1
metal submitted to laser cleaning.
This general case finds specific examples in outdoor
exposed bronze statues and decorations, and in archaeologi-
cal findings. The general commitment is the preservation of
stable oxides such as cuprite layers, or valuable coatings
such as gilding. In a conservation problem recently brought
to our attention, the conclusion of the study about the
distribution of temperature in a thin gold film on bronze was
that a pulse width of 50 ns determines a lower maximum
temperature than a 10 ns or much longer pulses [11].
In conclusion, the laser pulse width should be suitably
selected between tens and hundreds of nanoseconds up to
microseconds if the specific material characteristics need to
avoid strong mechanical stresses (examples are friable
surfaces of some stones), or need to keep as low as possible
the temperature rise (organic varnishes, low melting point
metals, etc.) following each pulse.
3. Intracavity fibre resonator
In the study concerning the SFR laser [8], we discussed
and demonstrated the utility to consider intermediate pulse
duration by shortening a free-running emission. In this
paper, we present the possibilities offered by the opposite
approach: extending the pulse width of a Q-switch emission.
A number of different resonators have been tested in
order to extend the pulse duration in Q-switched Nd:YAG
lasers: intracavity fibres [12] have been found to be the most
convincing solution to achieve a variation of orders of
magnitude. Fig. 3 shows the typical scheme of the laser
resonator.
Ztherm (µm)
τL = 100 ns τL = 1 µs τL = 10 µs
0.24 0.76 2.4
0.53 1.7 5.3
0.66 2.1 6.6
6.8 22 69
6.7 21 67
 R. Salimbeni et al. / Journal of Cultural Heritage 4 (2003) 72s–76s
Fig. 3. Scheme of the laser resonator with length L extended by an optical
fibre.
Silica core/silica cladding fibres were employed, with a
nominal numerical aperture of 0.2, 400 µm in diameter and
typical transmission losses of 2 dB/km at 1064 nm, aver-
aged over long paths. The Nd:YAG rod was 6 mm in
diameter and 85 mm in length. An elliptical coupler ensured
optical pumping with a linear flashlamp.
The fibre was cut into pieces of 5.5, 9, 13, 27 and 40 m
which were tested intracavity as interchangeable compo-
nents. A precise micropositioner moves in alignment with
one or another piece of fibre, to change the pulse width.
After each change, the alignment of rear and output mirrors
was carefully checked and found in optimised condition.
4. Characterisation and results
An immediate advantage of this solution is the coupling
of the laser emission into an external fibre without any
problem. A single lens with antireflection coating achieves a
90% energy coupling. An optical cable length of 3 m was
used during all the output parameter measurements. The
output of the fibre was analysed by an energy meter and a
photodiode.
Table 2 reports the main output parameters for the
various fibre length options. One order of magnitude of
variation is demonstrated, but there is no physical limit to
get longer pulses. A check for the risk of damage of the fibre
at the shortest duration gives a maximum intensity of
0.5 GW/cm2, which is more than one order of magnitude
lower than the threshold of optical breakdown on silica.
Hence there is a wide margin to achieve pulses shorter than
100 ns.
The beam intensity distribution is more flat than in a
normal resonator because of the homogenisation due to the
long intracavity fibre. The intensity is properly top hat, with
a constant value over 90% of the area.
Table 2
Laser emission parameters for various fibre lengths
Fiber length Pulse width FWHM Output energy
(m) (ns) (mJ)
5.5 175 105
9 280 110
13 450 130
27 1000 120
40 1800 100
75s
Fig. 4. Pulse shapes of the variable pulse duration Nd:YAG laser with some
possible width options.
The pulse shapes for the various fibre lengths are regular.
Some modulation was observed when a Brillouin scattering
effect was excited along small diameter and long fibre
pieces. Fig. 4 shows the typical symmetrical shapes. The
peak values have been normalised.
5. Conclusions
In view of the utilisation of Nd:YAG lasers in cultural
heritage conservation procedures that has spread fast, the
approach of quite different cleaning problems with best
accuracy and control is important.
In many cases, this corresponds to the need to change the
laser pulse duration between tens and hundreds of nanosec-
onds up to several microseconds. This has been accom-
plished by means of a variable pulse duration Nd:YAG laser
using interchangeable fibres positioned inside the resonator.
This laser will be a powerful tool for the conservator,
who may easily modulate the effectiveness of the cleaning
process according to the material features. On the short
pulse side, the photoacoustic process will be more suitable
for stiff encrustation, for example with heavily oxidised
metals, while the long pulse options are more suited for the
removal of encrustation over friable stones. This solution to
our knowledge is the first one to give such flexibility in the
application of ablation techniques in conservation.
Furthermore this laser lends itself to further investiga-
tions concerning the dependence of the effects associated
with the laser-material interaction on different laser pulse
duration.
Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful for the financial support given by
the Project “Regional Innovation Strategies”
RIS + Toscana, and by the Special Project of CNR “Safe-
guard of Cultural Heritage”. The authors acknowledge the
76s R. Salimbeni et al. / Journal of Cultural Heritage 4 (2003) 72s–76s
contribution to the project of Prof. Vitaly Konov of the
General Physics Institute of Moscow, Russia.
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