Instrumentation for Structure Measurements on Highly Non-equilibrium Materials

Abstract

Containerless techniques (levitation) completely eliminate contact with the sample. This unique sample environment allows deep supercooling of many liquids and avoids contamination of high temperature melts. Recent experiments at the APS high energy beamline 11 ID-C used aerodynamic levitation with laser beam heating and acoustic levitation with cryogenic cooling. By using these two methods, liquids were studied over much of the temperature range from -40 to +2500°C. This paper briefly describes the instrumentation and its use with an α-Si area detector that allows fast, in-situ measurements. Use of the instruments is illustrated with examples of measurements on molten oxides and aqueous materials.