Fast X-ray scattering measurements on high temperature levitated liquids

Abstract We describe a new high temperature environment based on aerodynamic levitation and CO 2 laser heating designed for high energy X-ray diffraction at the ID11 beamline at ESRF. The use of two lasers simultaneously provides a homogeneous temperature and makes it possible to explore the supercooled state with a high degree of control (about 500 °C below the melting point in this work) and to work very close to T g . The scattered beam is measured over a relatively wide Q -range of 0.5–19 A −1 with the ESRF Frelon 2D CDD camera. Using 1-min measurements we obtained good quality structure factors at various temperatures in the liquid and supercooled state of CaAl 2 O 4 . We also performed time-resolved measurements using an acquisition time of 100 ms and we obtained good statistics even at large Q . The Al–O and Ca–O bond lengths and coordination numbers derived from the calculated pair distribution functions are in good agreement with our previous X-ray and neutron works.