Laser-induced cavitation in liquid 4 He near the liquid-vapor critical point

High-speed videos in an optical cryostat, with frame rates up to 5x10(6) fps, are used to study the dynamics of laser-induced cavitation in helium near the critical point and in the supercritical region. The propagation of strong shock waves are observed in both regimes. The time dependence of the cavitation bubble radius as well as the acoustic pressure field outside the bubble are described by standard compressible flow models. In the temperature range 4K < T < 5.2K, a symmetric cloud of micron-scale bubbles are observed outside the main cavitation bubble as it approaches its maximum radius which is due to homogeneous nucleation and spinodal decomposition in the low-pressure fluid outside the bubble. Nucleation of secondary bubbles is also observed far below the critical point, but this requires large negative pressures that can be generated by shock waves that reflect from the primary bubble.