not. The solution to this problem is ongoing but advances have been made with the introduction of a double-sided approach. Double-sided heating The use of two lasers to heat the sample reduces the axial temperature gradient, this which allows for thicker samples to be heated more evenly. In order for a double-sided heating system to be successful it is essential that the two lasers are aligned so that they are both focused on the sample position. For in situ heating in diffraction experiments, the lasers need to be focused to the same point in space where the X-ray beam is focused. Laser heating systems at synchrotron facilities The European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) as well as many other synchrotron facilities as the three major synchrotron user facilities in the United States all have beamlines equipped with laser heating systems. The respective beamlines with laser heating systems are at the ESRF ID27, ID18, and ID24; at the Advanced Photon Source (APS), 13-ID-D GSECARS and 16-ID-B HP-CAT; at the National Synchrotron Light Source, X17B3; and at the Advanced Light Source, 12.2.2. Laser heating has become a routine technique in high-pressure science but the reliability of temperature measurement is still controversial. Temperature measurement In the first experiments with laser heating, temperature came from a calibration of laser power made with known melting points of various materials. When using the pulsed ruby laser this was unreliable due to the short pulse. YAG lasers quickly become the standard, heating for relatively long duration, and allowing observation of the sample throughout the heating process. It was with the first use of YAG lasers that Bassett used an optical pyrometer to measure temperatures in the range of 1000 °C to 1600 °C. The first temperature measurements had a standard deviation of 30 °C from the brightness temperature, but due to the small sample size was estimated to be 50 °C with the possibility that the true temperature of the sample being was 200 °C higher than that of the brightness measurement. Spectrometry of the incandescent light became the next method of temperature measurement used in Bassett's group. The energy of the emitted radiation could be compared to known black-body radiation spectra to derive a temperature. Calibration of these systems is done with published melting points or melting points as measured by resistive heating. Application of laser heating Laser heating is used to heat micrograms of sample in