Melting-Point Measurements at High Static Pressures from Laser Heating Methods: Application to Uranium

Abstract

Two experimental approaches dealing with the determination of melting at high static pressures are described and analyzed. With the sample squeezed inside a diamond anvil cell, high temperatures up to the solid–liquid transition are obtained using Nd:YAG laser heating. Two methods have been investigated. In the first technique, the heating is accomplished with a pulsed laser and the brief radiation variations (t<10 ms) emitted from the sample are recorded with two high-speed infrared detectors. The melting location is defined by a plateau or changes of slope of the signals, and the temperatures are calculated by assuming a constant value of emissivity factor at the end of the transition over the studied pressure range. The second system employs a continuous laser and a two-dimensional CCD detector to measure temperatures using multispectral pyrometry. Melting is detected from criteria related either to textural change in the sample involving interference contrast under a laser illumination or to the specific variations of temperature and emissivity as a function of laser power. Thermal radiation is fitted to Planck's law with temperature and emissivity as the free parameters. Advantages and drawbacks are presented from results obtained on pure uranium.