The Setup


A trapped bubble



So far, I have actually been able to produce sonoluminescence. However, the first encounter with sonoluminescence was very unstable, and much dimmer than I expected it to be. The first time I had produced this phenomena, the frequency generator had been generating a frequency between 26.640 kHz and 26.669 kHz. The microphone signal was between 789 and 860 mV-rms. The water was degassed, however, it had been sitting around for a few days, thus a considerable amount of air had returned to the water. With this in mind, I degassed the water again. and instead of using room temperature water, I used much colder water (10C). The result was a brighter and more stable light.

Oscilloscope Reading During Sonoluminescence

Vertical Scale: .5V Horizontal Scale: 20 microseconds.
For the cold degassed water, sonoluminescence occured between 26.164 kHz and 26.634 kHz and pick-up amplitudes between 434 mV- rms and 560 mV-rms.

My future plans
I plan to analyze the light intensity with a photomultiplier. Also, I hope to be able to find a way to photograph sonoluminescence, being that it is much too dim for a digital camera. (CCD perhaps?). Thanks to the help of Peter Amendola, I have been able to view sonoluminescence with a microscope, which magnifies the image 8x.


I plan to observe sonoluminescence in different media, hopefully I can use differrent gases or liquids to improve the stability and intensity of sonoluminescence and find the optimal conditions.