Any material has a characteristic pattern.
Kramer said the furnace is smaller than the standard laboratory tube furnace, measuring 18 inches tall and 6 inches in diameter. It is capable of rotating a sample up to 1,000 times per minute. In most current furnaces, the sample materials sit on a flat plate that does not allow rotation. This can cause large temperature variations in the material. It also sometimes causes the liquid and solid phases of the material to separate, Kramer said.