Sonoluminescence from a single bubble was studied under microgravity and hypergravity environments to determine how buoyancy affects the light emission. The long-term objective of these experiments is to determine if buoyancy-related instabilities play a role in limiting the parameter space of single-bubble sonoluminescence. Understanding the parameter space limitations may ultimately lead to novel approaches for enhancing the extreme conditions within the bubble. Our results reveal several buoyancy-related effects, which should be further investigated in an extended microgravity environment.

1.
D. F.
Gaitan
,
L. A.
Crum
,
C. C.
Church
, and
R. A.
Roy
, “
Sonoluminescence and bubble dynamics for a single, stable, cavitation bubble
,”
J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
91
,
3166
3183
(
1992
).
2.
B. P.
Barber
and
S. J.
Putterman
, “
Observation of synchronous picosecond sonoluminescence
,”
Nature (London)
352
,
318
320
(
1991
).
3.
K. R.
Weninger
,
B. P.
Barber
, and
S. J.
Putterman
, “
Pulsed Mie-scattering measurements of the collapse of a sonoluminescing bubble
,”
Phys. Rev. Lett.
78
,
1799
1802
(
1997
).
4.
W. C.
Moss
,
D. B.
Clarke
, and
D. A.
Young
, “
Calculated pulse widths and spectra of a single sonoluminescing bubble
,”
Science
276
,
1398
1401
(
1997
).
5.
W. C.
Moss
,
D. A.
Young
,
J. A.
Harte
,
J. L.
Levatin
,
B. F.
Rozsnyai
,
G. B.
Zimmerman
, and
I. H.
Zimmerman
, “
Computed optical emissions from a sonoluminescing bubble
,”
Phys. Rev. E
59
,
2986
2992
(
1999
).
6.
S.
Hilgenfeldt
,
S.
Grossmann
, and
D.
Lohse
, “
Sonoluminescence light emission
,”
Phys. Fluids
11
,
1318
1330
(
1999
).
7.
S.
Hilgenfeldt
,
S.
Grossmann
, and
D.
Lohse
, “
A simple explanation of light emission from sonoluminescence
,”
Nature (London)
398
,
402
405
(
1999
).
8.
As a first approximation, we assume spherical symmetry. Calculations of non-spherical bubble oscillations can be found in, e.g.,
J. R.
Blake
,
G. S.
Keen
,
R. P.
Tong
, and
M.
Wilson
, “
Acoustic cavitation: the fluid dynamics of non-spherical bubbles
,”
Philos. Trans. R. Soc. London, Ser. A
357
,
251
267
(
1999
).
9.
S. M. Cordry, Ph.D. thesis, University of Mississippi, 1995.
10.
T. J.
Matula
,
S. M.
Cordry
,
R. A.
Roy
, and
L. A.
Crum
, “
Bjerknes force and bubble levitation under single-bubble sonoluminescence conditions
,”
J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
102
,
1522
1527
(
1997
).
11.
M. S.
Longuet-Higgins
, “
Particle drift near an oscillating bubble
,”
Proc. R. Soc. London, Ser. A
453
,
1551
1568
(
1997
).
12.
M. S.
Longuet-Higgins
, “
Viscous streaming from an oscillating spherical bubble
,”
Proc. R. Soc. London, Ser. A
454
,
725
742
(
1998
).
13.
A.
Prosperetti
, “
A new mechanism for sonoluminescence
,”
J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
101
,
2003
2007
(
1997
).
14.
K.
Weninger
,
S. J.
Putterman
, and
B. P.
Barber
, “
Angular correlations in sonoluminescence: Diagnostic for the sphericity of a collapsing bubble
,”
Phys. Rev. E
54
,
R2205
R2208
(
1996
).
15.
R. G.
Holt
and
D. F.
Gaitan
, “
Observation of stability boundaries in the parameter space of single bubble sonoluminescence
,”
Phys. Rev. Lett.
77
,
3791
3794
(
1996
).
16.
T. J. Matula and L. A. Crum, in 16th International Congress on Acoustics and 135th Meeting Acoustical Society of America, edited by P. K. Kuhl and L. A. Crum (Acoustical Society of America, Seattle, WA, 1998), Vol. 4, pp. 2585–2586.
17.
J. A.
Ketterling
and
R. E.
Apfel
, “
Shape and extinction thresholds in sonoluminescence parameter space
,”
J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
107
,
L13
L18
(
2000
).
18.
S.
Hilgenfeldt
,
D.
Lohse
, and
M. P.
Brenner
, “
Phase diagrams for sonoluminescing bubbles
,”
Phys. Fluids
8
,
2808
2826
(
1996
).
19.
A.
Prosperetti
and
Y.
Hao
, “
Modelling of spherical gas bubble oscillations and sonoluminescence
,”
Philos. Trans. R. Soc. London, Ser. A
357
,
203
223
(
1999
).
20.
C. C.
Wu
and
P. H.
Roberts
, “
Bubble shape instability and sonoluminescence
,”
Phys. Lett. A
250
,
131
136
(
1998
).
21.
T. J.
Matula
,
R. A.
Roy
,
L. A.
Crum
, and
D. W.
Kuhns
, “
Preliminary experimental observations of the effects of buoyancy on single-bubble sonoluminescence in microgravity and hypergravity
,”
J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
100,
2717
(
1996
).
22.
T. J.
Matula
,
J. E.
Swalwell
,
V.
Bezzerides
,
P.
Hilmo
,
M.
Chittick
,
L. A.
Crum
,
D. K.
Kuhns
, and
R. A.
Roy
, “
Single-bubble sonoluminescence in microgravity
,”
J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
102
,
3185
(
1997
).
23.
L.
Kondic
,
C.
Yuan
, and
C. K.
Chan
, “
Ambient pressure and single-bubble sonoluminescence
,”
Phys. Rev. E
57
,
R32
R35
(
1998
).
24.
For a more detailed description of the influence of ambient pressure on SBSL, see
M.
Dan
,
J. D. N.
Cheeke
, and
L.
Kondic
, “
Ambient pressure effect on single-bubble sonoluminescence
,”
Phys. Rev. Lett.
83
,
1870
1873
(
1999
).
25.
S.
Wyatt
,
R.
Roy
, and
R.
Holt
, “
The effects of ambient acceleration on bubble levitation and SBSL
,”
J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
104
,
1770
(
1998
).
This content is only available via PDF.