The influence of initial pressure on the characteristics of conical bubble sonoluminescence

• The spectra and light pulses of CBL are investigated in pure water.
• The continuum background spectrum becomes more dominant with decrease of initial pressure.
• The mechanism of CBL depends on the initial pressure of bubble.
• Blackbody radiation and molecular emission contribute to luminescence of conical bubble cavitation.

Based on a conical bubble U-tube, conical bubble sonoluminescence was investigated by using pure water as the working medium. Intense cavitation luminescence can be obtained. With the decrease in initial pressure inside the bubble, the intensity and duration of light emission increased. The spectrum is mainly composed of the spectral bands of H2O at the initial pressure of 1000 Pa. With the decrease in initial pressure, a broad continuum background spectrum that is well fitted by blackbody radiation can be detected, on which several spectral bands emitted by water molecules are superimposed. A higher temperature inside the bubble can be obtained with the decrease in initial pressure. Moreover, the intensity of the continuum background spectrum becomes more dominant compared with that of H2O emission bands. Finally, we conclude that blackbody radiation and molecular emission contribute to luminescence of conical bubble cavitation. Moreover, the initial pressure inside the conical bubble significantly affects the emission mechanism of conical bubble sonoluminescence.