The sonically induced cavitation of liquid helium

Abstract

The onset of sonically induced cavitation in liquid helium at frequencies between 30 and 40 kHz has been studied. In helium II, two types of cavitation activity were identified: acoustic cavitation whose characteristic noise can be detected, and visible cavitation in which vaporous cavities grow to visible size. The onset of acoustic cavitation is statistical in nature with increasing event rates as the sound pressure amplitude is increased and whose threshold depends on the waiting time at that particular amplitude. The acoustic threshold sound pressure amplitude in helium II between 1.8° K andTλ was found to lie within 0.15 mb of 0.3 mb, the variation of ±0.15 mb occurring from one determination to another, whereas the sound pressure amplitude corresponding to the visible threshold was about a hundred times larger. These two distinct types of sonically induced cavitation appear to be unique to liquid helium. However, aboveTλ the two thresholds were found to coincide at a sound pressure amplitude within 0.4 mb of 0.8 mb. The characteristics of the onset of acoustic cavitation were found to be independent of applied static pressure of up to 1.5 atm above and belowTλ and in helium II they were unaffected by filtering, heat flushing, or rotating the liquid. The results suggest that liquid helium is nucleated by random events initiated by the ambient cosmic radiation or by vortices generated in the liquid, and they imply that at ultrasonic frequencies this liquid cannot withstand a tensile stress and behaves in this respect like water saturated with gas and containing dust motes. Attempts to determine the onset of acoustic cavitation by scattering light off the bubbles or by detecting sonoluminescence were not successful: The upper limit to the size of these bubbles was shown to be about 30 µm and the intensity of any sonoluminescence must have been less than 10−4 of that from cavitating water. The possibilities of exploiting the two types of cavitation activity in liquid helium in the construction of a posttriggerable ultrasonic bubble chamber for visualizing the tracks of ionizing particles are discussed, as are the theoretical background and future development of the work presented in this paper.