Studying the in-depth nature of medieval ferrous alloys using X-ray Diffraction under Synchrotron Radiation

Studying the nature of the metal used to produce medieval objects is of great interest for the history of techniques. As sampling possibilities are very limited in case of museum artefact, non-invasive techniques such as X-ray diffraction (XRD) are better suited to identify and quantify the different phases, characteristic of ancient ferrous alloys. Given the heterogeneity of these ancient alloys, previous X-Ray Diffraction experiments showed the necessity to increase the in-depth representativity, that can be provided by using high X-Ray sources (>30 keV), only available at Synchrotron Radiation facilities. This project aims to develop a tailored methodology to study the in-depth heterogeneity of medieval ferrous alloys using SR-XRD. The approach involves the analysis of model alloys, archaeological samples and complete archaeological armour plates.