Peak scaling method to measure temperatures in the laser-heated diamond anvil cell and application to the thermal conductivity of MgO

We test and characterize a new method to measure 2-D radial temperature distributions in the laser-heated diamond anvil cell using comparisons against real and synthetic data. We show that this method (1) incorporates an inexpensive and robust design for laser-heated diamond cell temperature measurements, (2) yields precise measurements of radial temperature distributions of laser-heated samples, and (3) can be used in conjunction with numerical models to measure the pressure and temperature dependence of thermal conductivity of materials. We apply the method to determine the high-pressure, high-temperature thermal conductivity of MgO.