Acoustic power dependences of sonoluminescence and bubble dynamics

• Sonoluminescence and sonochemiluminescence intensities decrease and then disappear at high powers at 84 kHz.
• High-speed photography demonstrated the power dependence of the SL correlated with the types of bubble dynamics.
• The occurrence of bubble clusters is the main cause of the SL reduction and the marked increase in subharmonic emission.

The decreasing effect of sonoluminescence (SL) in water at high acoustic powers was investigated in relation to bubble dynamics and acoustic emission spectra. The intensity of SL was measured in the power range of 1–18 W at 83.8 kHz for open-end (free liquid surface and film-covered surface) and fixed-end boundaries of sound fields. The power dependence of the SL intensity showed a maximum and then decrease to zero for all the boundaries. Similar results were obtained for sonochemiluminescence in luminol solution. The power dependence of the SL intensity was strongly correlated with the bubble dynamics captured by high-speed photography at 64 k fps. In the low-power range where the SL intensity increases, bubble streamers were observed and the population of streaming bubbles increased with the power. At powers after SL maximum occurred, bubble clusters came into existence. Upon complete SL reduction, only bubble clusters were observed. The subharmonic in the acoustic emission spectra increased markedly in the region where bubble clusters were observed. Nonspherical oscillations of clustering bubbles may make a major contribution to the subharmonic.