Inertial cavitation and single-bubble sonoluminescence

Sonoluminescence is investigated experimentally from the perspective of the dynamics of a single inertial cavitation bubble levitated in an acoustic sound field. The discussion includes bubble levitation, the inertial cavitation threshold, the parameter space in which stable single-bubble sonoluminescence is observed, measurements of the acoustic and electromagnetic emissions from a sonoluminescence bubble, and the effects of impurities on the quality of the light emission from sonoluminescence bubbles. Comparisons are also made between sonoluminescence from a single bubble and sonoluminescence from a cavitation field.