Contactless investigation on laser-heated oxides by synchrotron radiation

Aerodynamic levitation associated with CO 2 laser heating was used to carefully characterize a series of rare-earth and others refractory oxides in the solid and the liquid state. The differences and the similarities between the structure on both sides of the liquid-crystalline solid phase transition are discussed. The temperature dependence of the structural parameters has been studied by performing, for the first time, in situ combined XAS and XRD experiments up to 2800°C.