sonoluminescence

This article's citation style may be unclear. The references used may be made clearer with a different or consistent style of citation, footnoting, or external linking. (December 2008)

Long exposure image of multi-bubble sonoluminescence created by a high-intensity ultrasonic horn immersed in a beaker of liquid

Another long exposure image of sonoluminescence in a beaker of water. Each bright blue dot is an individual bubble that is emitting light.

Sonoluminescence is the emission of short bursts of light from imploding bubbles in a liquid when excited by sound.

History

The effect was first discovered at the University of Cologne in 1934 as a result of work on sonar. H. Frenzel and H. Schultes put an ultrasound transducer in a tank of photographic developer fluid. They hoped to speed up the development process. Instead, they noticed tiny dots on the film after developing and realized that the bubbles in the fluid were emitting light with the ultrasound turned on. It was too difficult to analyze the effect in early experiments because of the complex environment of a large number of short-lived bubbles. (This experiment is also ascribed to N. Marinesco and J.J. Trillat in 1933, which also credits them with independent discovery). This phenomenon is now referred to as multi-bubble sonoluminescence (MBSL).

In 1989 a major advancement was introduced by Felipe Gaitan and Lawrence Crum, who produced stable single-bubble sonoluminescence (SBSL). In SBSL, a single bubble trapped in an acoustic standing wave, emits a pulse of light with each compression of the bubble within the standing wave. This technique allowed a more systematic study of the phenomenon, because it isolated the complex effects into one stable, predictable bubble. It was realized that the temperature inside the bubble was hot enough to melt steel. Interest in sonoluminescence was renewed when an inner temperature of such a bubble well above one million Kelvin was postulated. This temperature is thus far not conclusively proven, though recent experiments conducted by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign indicate temperatures around 20,000 Kelvin. Research has also been carried out by Dr. Klaus Fritsch of John Carroll University, University Heights, Ohio.

The US Navy studied propeller-induced sonoluminescence during the Cold War.

Properties

Sonoluminescence can occur when a sound wave of sufficient intensity induces a gaseous cavity within a liquid to collapse quickly. This cavity may take the form of a pre-existing bubble, or may be generated through a process known as cavitation. Sonoluminescence in the laboratory can be made to be stable, so that a single bubble will expand and collapse over and over again in a periodic fashion, emitting a burst of light each time it collapses. For this to occur, a standing acoustic wave is set up within a liquid, and the bubble will sit at a pressure anti-node of the standing wave. The frequencies of resonance depend on the shape and size of the container in which the bubble is contained.

Some facts about sonoluminescence:

• The light flashes from the bubbles are extremely short—between 35 and a few hundred picoseconds long—with peak intensities of the order of 1-10 mW.
• The bubbles are very small when they emit the light—about 1 micrometre in diameter—depending on the ambient fluid (e.g., water) and the gas content of the bubble (e.g., atmospheric air).
• Single-bubble sonoluminescence pulses can have very stable periods and positions. In fact, the frequency of light flashes can be more stable than the rated frequency stability of the oscillator making the sound waves driving them. However, the stability analyses of the bubble show that the bubble itself undergoes significant geometric instabilities, due to, for example, the Bjerknes forces and Rayleigh–Taylor instabilities.
• The addition of a small amount of noble gas (such as helium, argon, or xenon) to the gas in the bubble increases the intensity of the emitted light.

Spectral measurements have given bubble temperatures in the range from 2300 K to 5100 K, the exact temperatures depending on experimental conditions including the composition of the liquid and gas.^[1] Detection of very high bubble temperatures by spectral methods is limited due to the opacity of liquids to short wavelength light characteristic of very high temperatures.

Writing in Nature, chemists David J. Flannigan and Kenneth S. Suslick describe a method of determining temperatures based on the formation of plasmas. Using argon bubbles in sulfuric acid, their data show the presence of ionized molecular oxygen O₂⁺, sulfur monoxide, and atomic argon populating high-energy excited states, which confirms a hypothesis that the bubbles have a hot plasma core.^[2] The ionization and excitation energy of dioxygenyl cations, which they observed, is 18 electronvolts. From this they conclude the core temperatures reaches at least 20,000 Kelvin.^[3]

Rayleigh–Plesset equation

The dynamics of the motion of the bubble is characterized to a first approximation by the Rayleigh-Plesset equation (named after Lord Rayleigh and Milton Plesset):

This is an approximate equation that is derived from the compressible Navier-Stokes equations and describes the motion of the radius of the bubble R as a function of time t. Here, η is the viscosity, p the pressure, and γ the surface tension. This equation, though approximate, has been shown to give good estimates on the motion of the bubble under the acoustically driven field except during the final stages of collapse. Both simulation and experimental measurement show that during the critical final stages of collapse, the bubble wall velocity exceeds the speed of sound of the gas inside the bubble^[4]. Thus a more detailed analysis of the bubble's motion is needed beyond Rayleigh-Plesset to explore the additional energy focussing that an internally formed shock wave might produce.

Mechanism of phenomenon

The mechanism of the phenomenon of sonoluminescence remains unsettled. Theories include: hotspot, bremsstrahlung radiation, collision-induced radiation and corona discharges, nonclassical light, proton tunneling, electrodynamic jets, fractoluminescent jets (now largely discredited due to contrary experimental evidence), and so forth.

From left to right: apparition of bubble, slow expansion, quick and sudden contraction, emission of light

In 2002, M. Brenner, S. Hilgenfeldt, and D. Lohse published a 60-page review "Single bubble sonoluminescence" (Reviews of Modern Physics 74, 425) that contains a detailed explanation of the mechanism. An important factor is that the bubble contains mainly inert noble gas such as argon or xenon (air contains about 1% argon, and the amount dissolved in water is too great—for sonoluminescence to occur, the concentration must be reduced to 20-40% of its equilibrium value) and varying amounts of water vapor. Chemical reactions cause nitrogen and oxygen to be removed from the bubble after about one hundred expansion-collapse cycles. The bubble will then begin to emit light "Evidence for Gas Exchange in Single-Bubble Sonoluminescence", Matula and Crum, Phys. Rev. Lett. 80 (1998), 865-868).

During bubble collapse, the inertia of the surrounding water causes high pressure and high temperature, reaching around 10,000 Kelvin in the interior of the bubble, causing the ionization of a small fraction of the noble gas present. The amount ionized is small enough for the bubble to remain transparent, allowing volume emission; surface emission would produce more intense light of longer duration, dependent on wavelength, contradicting experimental results. Electrons from ionized atoms interact mainly with neutral atoms, causing thermal bremsstrahlung radiation. As the wave hits a low energy trough, the pressure drops, allowing electrons to recombine with atoms and light emission to cease due to this lack of free electrons. This makes for a 160-picosecond light pulse for argon (even a small drop in temperature causes a large drop in ionization, due to the large ionization energy relative to photon energy). This description is simplified from the literature above, which details various steps of differing duration from 15 microseconds (expansion) to 100 picoseconds (emission).

Computations based on the theory presented in the review produce radiation parameters (intensity and duration time versus wavelength) that match experimental results with errors no larger than expected due to some simplifications (e.g. assuming a uniform temperature in the entire bubble), so it seems the phenomenon of sonoluminescence is at least roughly explained, although some details of the process remain obscure.

Exotic proposals

An unusually exotic theory of sonoluminescence, which has received much popular attention, is the Casimir energy theory suggested by noted physicist Julian Schwinger^[5] and more thoroughly considered in a paper by Claudia Eberlein^[6] of the University of Sussex. Eberlein's paper suggests that the light in sonoluminescence is generated by the vacuum within the bubble in a process similar to Hawking radiation, the radiation generated by the edges of black holes. Quantum theory holds that vacuum contains virtual particles, and the rapidly moving interface between water and gas converts virtual photons into real photons. This is related to the Unruh effect or the Casimir effect. If true, sonoluminescence may be the first observable example of quantum vacuum radiation. The argument has been made that sonoluminescence releases too large an amount of energy and releases the energy on too short a time scale to be consistent with the vacuum energy explanation^[7], although other credible sources argue the vacuum energy explanation might yet prove to be correct.^[8]

Nuclear reactions

Some have argued that the Rayleigh-Plesset equation described above is unreliable for predicting bubble temperatures and that actual temperatures in sonoluminescing systems can be far higher than 20,000 Kelvin. Some research claims to have measured temperatures as high as 100,000 Kelvin, and speculates temperatures can reach into the millions of Kelvin.^[9] Temperatures this high could cause thermonuclear fusion. This possibility is sometimes referred to as bubble fusion.

On January 27, 2006, researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute claimed to have produced fusion in sonoluminescence experiments.^[10][11] To date, these results have not been reproduced by other members of the scientific community.

Recent experiments (2002, 2005) of R. P. Taleyarkhan, et al., using deuterated acetone show measurements of tritium and neutron output consistent with fusion, but these measurements have not been reproduced outside of the Taleyarkhan lab and remain controversial. Brian Naranjo of the University of California, Los Angeles, has recently completed an analysis of the Taleyarkhan results, claiming that Taleyarkhan had most likely misinterpreted the radioactive decay of standard lab materials for the byproducts of nuclear fusion. In 2008, The Purdue University (where these experiments were performed) stripped R. P. Taleyarkhan of his professorship after accusing him of research misconduct, due to his controversial works on bubble fusion.

Biological sonoluminescence

Pistol shrimp (also called "snapping shrimp") produce a type of sonoluminescence from a collapsing bubble caused by quickly snapping a specialized claw. The light produced is of lower intensity than the light produced by typical sonoluminescence and is not visible to the naked eye. The light and heat produced may have no direct significance, as it is the shockwave produced by the rapidly collapsing bubble which these shrimp use to stun or kill prey. However, it is the first known instance of an animal producing light by this effect and was whimsically dubbed "shrimpoluminescence" upon its discovery in 2001.^[12] It has subsequently been discovered that another group of crustaceans, the mantis shrimp, contains species whose club-like forelimbs can strike so quickly and with such force as to induce sonoluminescent cavitation bubbles upon impact.^[13]

See also

• Sonochemistry
• Bubble fusion
• Cold fusion
• List of light sources
• Alpheidae, a family of snapping shrimp with assymetric claws, the larger of which is typically capable of producing sonoluminescence
• Mantis shrimp, another example of marine crustacean that is capable of breaking through aquarium glass with a single strike from its weapon

References

General references

• Putterman, S.J. (1995-02-01). "Sonoluminescence: Sound into light" (PDF). Scientific American 272 (2): 46–51. ISSN 0036-8733. http://www.physics.ucla.edu/Sonoluminescence/sono.pdf. 
• H. Frenzel and H. Schultes (1934). "Luminescenz im ultraschallbeschickten Wasser". Z. Phys. Chem. B27: 421. 
• Gaitan, D. F.; L. A. Crum, R. A. Roy, and C. C. Church (1992-06). "Sonoluminescence and bubble dynamics for a single, stable, cavitation bubble". The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 91 (6): 3166–3183. doi:10.1121/1.402855. 
• Brenner, Michael P.; Hilgenfeldt, Sascha; Lohse, Detlef (2002-05-13). "Single bubble sonoluminescence" (PDF). Reviews of Modern Physics (The American Physical Society) 74 (2): 425–484. doi:10.1103/RevModPhys.74.425. http://doc.utwente.nl/42577/1/single-bubble_sonoluminescence.pdf. Retrieved 2008-05-27. 
• Taleyarkhan, R. P.; C. D. West, J. S. Cho, R. T. Lahey, Jr., R. Nigmatulin, and R. C. Block (2002-03-08). "Evidence for Nuclear Emissions During Acoustic Cavitation". Science 295 (1868). ISSN 0036-8075. http://www.sciencemag.org/feature/data/hottopics/bubble/index.shtml. Retrieved 2007-05-13. 
• "Tiny Bubbles Implode With the Heat of a Star", New York Times article. Registration and small fee may be required.
• John D. Wrbanek, et al.(2009): Investigating Sonoluminescence as a Means of Energy Harvesting. pages 605–637, in: Marc G. Millis, Eric W. Davis: Frontiers of Propulsion Science. American Inst. of Aeronautics & Astronautics, Reston, ISBN 1-56347-956-7, Abstract NASA Technical Reports Server
• For a "How too" guide for student science projects see: Robert Hiller and Bradley Barber (1995). "Producing Light from a Bubble of Air". Scientific American 272 (2): 96–98. 

External links

• Buzzacchi, Matteo, E. Del Giudice, and G. Preparata, "Sonoluminescence Unveiled?" Quantum Physics, abstract (quant-ph/9804006). Thursday, 2 April 1998 [ed. Single Bubble Sonoluminescence (SBSL) phenomenology.]
• Discussion of some different theories of sonoluminescence
• A how-to guide to setting up a sonoluminescence experiment
• Another detailed description of a sonoluminescence experiment
• A description of the effect and experiment, with a diagram of the apparatus
• An mpg video of the collapsing bubble (934 kB)
• Shrimpoluminescence
• Impulse Devices
• Applications of sonochemistry
• Sound waves size up sonoluminescence
• Sonoluminescence: from sound to light

Newer research papers largely rule out the vacuum energy explanation

• quant-ph/9904013 S. Liberati, M. Visser, F. Belgiorno, D. Sciama: Sonoluminescence as a QED vacuum effect
• hep-th/9811174 K. A. Milton: Sonoluminescence and the Dynamical Casimir Effect