Scanning the laser beam for ultrafast pulse laser cleaning of paint

Powerful ultrafast femtosecond laser pulses have the unique ability to ablate material with minimal collateral damage. This ability offers the potential for new applications of ultrafast lasers for removing surface contamination and unwanted surface layers in the conservation of artworks and heritage objects. In this paper we concentrate on the problem of precise and fast scanning of the laser spot over the treated surface for cleaning relatively large surface areas. Preliminary results are presented for the removal of intrusive paint layers, using a 12-ps laser with 1.5 MHz repetition rate, and 0.5 ps laser with 10 kHz repetition rate.