We are excited to share the publication of a new article in the Journal of Cultural Heritage, highlighting the contribution of the Photonics for Heritage Science (PhoHS) group of IESL-FORTH to the daguerreotype research (DIAGNOSE project) in collaboration with colleagues from the National Research Council – National Institute of Optics (CNR-INO) in Florence, Italy.

The article, entitled “Setting up a methodology for restoring degraded daguerreotypes using UV lasers and atmospheric non-thermal plasma cleaning techniques,” is authored by Diego Quintero Balbas, Evdoxia Dimitroulaki, Kristalia Melessanaki, Barbara Cattaneo, Andrea Cagnini, Laura Bartoli, Emanuele Verga Falzacappa, Paolo Scopece, Paraskevi Pouli, and Jana Striova.

This study involves laser cleaning tests to remove thin tarnish layers and white haze on two historical daguerreotypes employing UV lasers (KrF excimer laser at 248 nm) in the ns and fs regime.

Experimental work was conducted at the Ultraviolet Laser Facility at IESL-FORTH in Greece and supported by the European Community’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program, LASERLAB-EUROPE (Grant Agreement No. 871124), through the project “Laser cleaning of daguerreotypes” (PID 27277).

Read the full article here: doi:10.1016/j.culher.2025.06.021.