A levitation device associated with laser heating has been developed in ord
er to measure the structure of ceramics at very high temperature by using s
ynchrotron radiation sources. Combined X-ray diffraction and X-ray absorpti
on measurements have been performed on spherical solid and liquid samples i
n a controlled atmosphere up to 2800 degrees C. The analysis chamber was in
tegrated with the 7-circles goniometer of the D2AM station at the ESRF. Thi
s technique presents a novel opportunity to probe the short-range and long-
range properties of high-temperature oxides up to the liquid phase. By stud
ying the local structure around cations in oxides, we have shown that the c
ombined XAFS and XRD data, deriving from in-situ synchrotron radiation expe
riments, contain valuable information on phase transitions, contributing to
the optimisation of the fabrication of ceramics.