An integrated method to determine melting temperatures in high-pressure laser-heating experiments

We present an integrated approach for the determination of melting in the laser-heated diamond-anvil cell by simultaneously monitoring several criteria. We combine x-ray diffraction based observations with detection of discontinuities in optical properties by spectroradiometric measurements. This approach increases the confidence of melt identification, especially with low-Z samples. We demonstrate the efficacy of the method with observations of melt in oxygen at 47 GPa (1500 K) and at 55 GPa (1850 K).