The transient temperature of carbon tetrachloride under shock compression at pressures below 6 GPa has been measured by nanosecond time-resolved Raman spectroscopy. The shock wave is generated by direct irradiation of a pulsed laser using a plasma-confined target geometry. The measured temperature agrees well with that calculated with known Hugoniot and jump conditions. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.