Evaporating ovens

One problem with simulating stellar atmospheres in experiments on earth is "containment". At temperatures of the outer surface (forget the interior) of our star, no materials at all are known to be solid. Fortunately red giant stars have cooler atomospheres (in the 2000K-4000K range), but we much still choose our materials carefully.

For the special problem of carbon vapor in red giant star atmospheres, we are in luck because a standard way of making carbon vapor in the lab is by resistive heating of a carbon rod. Condensing carbon vapor outside of a heated rod will of course cool rapidly via radiative losses to room temperature surroundings. However a hollow region inside an evaporating rod might be able to condense carbon vapor while at the same time keeping the rate of cooling to a minimum.