Melting of carbon heated by focused laser radiation in air at atmospheric pressure and temperature below 4000 K

The melting of carbon at a pressure of about 1 atm is observed. The escape of liquid carbon from the heating region and its spread over the sample surface are observed in the experiments. The structural changes in graphite occurring in the melting region are determined from scanning tunneling microscope (STM) images obtained by means of an atomic force microscope and from Raman spectra. The STM images exhibit significant rearrangement of the structure of the graphite surface in the region of the escape of liquid carbon. The Raman spectra show that the graphite ordering degree increases significantly.