Laser Application

Head of Unit: D.ssa Roberta Fantoni Tel.  06 94...  E-mail : fantoni@frascati.enea.it

Within FIM department, the Laser Application section (FISLAS) deals with the development, implementation and industrial transfer of laser systems and optical innovative technologies. Mostly applied studies are on going there, which are aimed to the development of instrumentation suitable to use in the fields of space exploration, bio-medical diagnostics and cultural heritage conservation. The available expertise, which has been developed for specific applications, concerns laser spectroscopy, the use of commercial laser sources and of synchrotron radiation,  terrestrial and marine vegetation biology, active and passive optical sensors, and laser based nano- and micro-technologies. The LAS section includes laboratories located mostly at Frascati (near Rome), with two other units one located at Casaccia (also near Rome) and Mesagne (near Brindisi) ENEA Centers. It is currently formed by 35 staff members, sharing research and technical positions, to which every years several graduate and PhD students add, together with several foreign guest researchers from various countries. Within projects funded by the Italian Ministry of Research (MUR), the section participates to industrial researches carried on by consortia located in Southern Italy, such as CETMA and TRAIN. Funds for fundamental and applied research are gathered by means of National (mostly form MUR) and European (FP6 and FP7, special actions such as PASR and CULTURE 2000) projects. Activities are carried on themes concerning: Optical metrology and laser vision, Development of sensors for local and remote diagnostics, Laser systems for synthesis and characterization of nanostructures. These themes are relevant to several current ENEA projects dealing with Spin-off of different Technologies (Technology for Cultural Heritage, Technology for Health, Technology for Food Safety and Quality), partially to the Global Change and Kyoto ENEA Project and to the forthcoming ENEA action dealing with Technology for Security and Safety.

Metrology Laser laboratory

 Optical metrology laboratories

• Holography and 3D imaging laboratory, equipped with systems for 3D rendering of objects and models.

• Artificial vision laboratory, equipped with a transportable high resolution LRF for industrial controls, 3D modeling of artwork and for space resolved remote characterization of monumental surfaces and of closed environments (chapels, crypts, tombs), and with a microsystem for underwater vision.

• Laser Interferometry laboratory, equipped with laser interferometric and Speckle systems for material non destructive testing and with transportable laser systems for reading FBG sensors installed on the territory.

Lidar laboratories

The laser remote sensing laboratory of ENEA Frascati, is part of the Section FIS-LAS. This lab has great experience in the implementation of laser systems and their applications in the field of the environmental monitoring, especially utilized during different scientific expeditions in Italy and abroad. To this aim, the group has designed and implemented various laser systems for remote sensing of atmospheric, marine and terrestrial constituents.

• Mobile atmospheric lidar laboratory, in a van, equipped with two lidar/DAIL systems for atmospheric analysis, one of which operating in the IR the other in the UV.

• Mobile lidar fluorosensor laboratory, in an ISO 20 container for use from a fixed position or from a ship, also equipped with ancillary instrumentation suitable for in-situ use on liquids and solutions, including a spectrofluorimeter, an UV-visible absorption spectrometer and a PAM pulsed fluorimeter.

•  LIF Laboratory, equipped with a multichannel transportable system for semi-remote scanning operation, suitable to detect surface impurities (pollutants, microorganisms) on artworks and monumental surfaces, with a compact system for in-situ  characterization of waters (springs, wells), and with a laser flow cytometer.

Laboratories for spectroscopic diagnostics

• LIBS laboratory, it contains a complete transportable system suitable to elemental chemical analysis of samples in any aggregation state, equipped with a probe (articulated arm) for in situ analyses without sampling and with a couvette for analyses of solutions or of solid samples immersed in liquids.

• Laboratory for non linear spectroscopy, equipped with spectroscopic systems for non linear laser diagnostics, such as CARS and DFWM, in industrial environment and for the characterization of non linear optical properties of innovative materials and nanostructures.

• Molecular spectroscopy laboratory, equipped with a photoacustic system for detection of bio-gas in the infrared, with several partially transportable absorption systems based on diode laser sources for gas analysis in the middle and near IR, and with systems for cell fluorescence measurements. 

• Laboraotry for spectroscopy on functional materials (Casaccia) quipped with a femtosecond laser source used for non linear optics measurements (e.g. Z-scan), with systems for time resolved luminescence, for Raman spectroscopy and for UV-VIS-NIR and FTIR absorption measurements, and with a set-up for DLS (Dynamic Light Scattering).
• Laboratory for vegetation biology containing instruments for in vivo fluorescence measurements and image analysis on different parts of plants. In order to accomplish experiments upon different stress conditions, it is equipped with growth chambers for vegetation, with microscopies and pulsed fluorimeters (PAM) for imaging

Micro- and nano-technology laboratories

• Laboratory for L-CVD of films and electron spectroscopy, equipped with an UV system for L-CVD and recrystallization for the growth of nanostructures in ultra-high-vacuum, including in-situ instrumentation for surface diagnostics.

• Laboratory for nanopowder laser synthesis, equipped with a flow reactor for the synthesis of nanometric powders baser on laser pyrolysis of gaseous precursors.

• Laboratory for catalyst free laser assisted synthesis of carbon nanotubes, equipped with a vacuum chamber and a flow system for laser irradiation of precursor nanomaterials.

ENEA Excellence in 2008: RGB-ITR: Three colour laser system with very high resolution for utilization in hostile environments and for diagnostics on cultural heritage. Mario Ferri De Collibus, Giorgio Fornetti, Massimo Francucci, Massimiliano Guarneri, Marcello Nuvoli, Emiliano Paglia, Roberto Ricci In the Laser Applications Laboratories at Frascati a colour laser RGB-ITR  (Red Green Blue Imaging Topological Radar) was developed to check the status of internal structures in nuclear fusion reactors, in an area not accessible to humans. Later ENEA researchers have had the insight to apply this technology to the field of diagnostics, fruition and restoration of cultural heritage, combining the functions of the radar with those of a sophisticated software, designed to collect and analyze data. The radar works by using visible light and emitting a laser beam where three wavelengths corresponding to the primary colours: red, blue and green are combined. This configuration enables a very accurate analysis of the characteristics of both size and colour of the work of art, while the software processes collected information allowing to reproduce the image in three dimensions. The RGB-ITR was already used for accurate measurement campaigns in different religious sites, such as the Hrastovlje church in Slovenia, and in the Carafa Chapel, painted by Filippino Lippi in the Church of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva in Rome at the end of the fifteenth century. The latter was reproduced in 3D during the exhibition "The fifteenth in Rome", held in the Museum of the course from April till September 2008. Results were published on international journals such as "Optics Letters" and "Fusion Engineering

Photos of the system in operation in the chapel of Slovenian Hrastovje and 3D model of the apse sampled by the scanning.