Aerodynamic levitation: A new opportunity in nondestructive characterization at high temperature

Containerless melting of refractory materials constitutes a powerful instrument for production of glass and ceramics. We have recently proposed a novel laser heating technique associated with levitation for the processing and the determination of the properties of oxides at elevated temperature. The aerodynamic levitation of a spherical sample is combined with a heating by a continuous wave CO{sub 2} laser beam to achieve temperatures as high as 2850 deg. C. This nondestructive technique is specifically used for online investigation at the atomic scale of materials during synthesis.