Pressure Dependence of UO2 Melting Measured by Double-Pulse Laser Heating

The melting point of uranium dioxide was measured as a function of isostatic pressure in an autoclave filled with helium up to 0.25 GPa. Containerless laser surface-heating was applied to measure the melting point by thermal arrest measurements during sample cooling. Precise control of the cooling rate, aimed at a precise determination of the freezing plateau, was obtained with a two-pulse method, where two Nd:YAG high power laser pulses are mixed within the same optical fiber and then focused on the sample surface. Calibration of the power of the two pulses permits the measurement of the melting point with very low uncertainty (0.5%). The measured melting slope of UO2 is 170 and 200 K·GPa−1, a value which is markedly higher than that predicted by the Clausius–Clapeyron equation, which expresses this slope in terms of the enthalpy of fusion and the melting expansion. Possible reasons for this discrepancy are discussed.