Abstract
Aerodynamic levitation combined with laser beam heating has become an established technique for studying the structure of materials at ultra-high temperatures and under non-equilibrium conditions. This article briefly highlights some recent technical and scientific advancements in understanding the relationships between a material's behavior and its structure, investigated using diffraction methods. It focuses on three evolving frontiers: sophisticated sample environments for accessing metastable states and reactive chemistries, high-flux photon and neutron probes to reveal atomic structure, and advanced computational modeling frameworks. Free from contamination, containerless processing (levitation) can minimize heterogeneous nucleation at the interface, enabling access to deeply supercooled melts or providing insights into chemical processes, such as steelmaking, aerospace materials and ultra-high temperature ceramics manufacturing. Additionally, the study of highly radioactive materials, including plutonium oxide are now feasible, and recent advancements in machine learning methods can extract bonding information well beyond that obtained using standard diffraction analyses. The prospect for future opportunities is discussed with a focus on hyperbaric levitation to extend the range of extreme chemical conditions.
Recommended Citation
C. J. Benmore et al., "High Temperature Diffraction from Aerodynamically Levitated Materials," Advances in Physics X, vol. 11, no. 1, article no. 2642120, Taylor and Francis Group; Taylor and Francis, Jan 2026.
The definitive version is available at https://doi.org/10.1080/23746149.2026.2642120
Department(s)
Materials Science and Engineering
Publication Status
Open Access
Keywords and Phrases
aerodynamic levitation; high temperature; hyperbaric; laser beam heating; pair distribution function; X-ray diffraction
International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)
2374-6149
Document Type
Article - Journal
Document Version
Final Version
File Type
text
Language(s)
English
Rights
© 2026 The Authors, All rights reserved.
Creative Commons Licensing
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Publication Date
01 Jan 2026
Comments
Advanced Scientific Computing Research, Grant DE-SC0024692