Bubble nucleation dynamics in 3He/4He mixture by holographic interferometry

Abstract

We were able to nucleate a gas bubble in the diluted phase of 3He-4He mixture by a 1 ms width strong sound pulse. The nucleated bubble became large and detached from the bottom transducer and was pushed out to the bulk liquid by the acoustic wave pulse. The bubble then repeatedly expanded and contracted a few times and finally disappeared. The overall motion of the bubble was traced by a high speed camera with a time resolution of 1 ms. We are attempting to investigate the small density fluctuation around the bubble by incorporating holographic interferometry technology. The measurement was done at T=0.35 K for the phase separated mixture at saturated vapor pressure. An acoustic wave transducer was located at the bottom of the cell, so the bubble was nucleated in the dilute phase of the mixture. We resolved the density fluctuation as small as Δρ/ρ = 2 × 10-6 in the dilute phase with the sample width of 25 mm, which could not be obtained by other methods. It was found that there appeared a less dense region of —Δρ/ρ ≈ 1.46 × 10-3 just above the bubble. The bubble appeared just after the pulse was turned off, but this less dense region appeared prior to the emergence of the bulk bubble. It should be an important information about the bubble nucleation mechanism. This very high sensitivity of holographic interferometry with respect to the density fluctuation could be widely used in quantum liquid.