Harmonic enhancement of single-bubble sonoluminescence

It is known from experiment that the light emission from a sonoluminescing bubble can be increased by using more than one driving frequency. In this paper, a systematic method to determine the optimal conditions of pressure amplitude and relative phase for this effect is described. As a specific application, a two-frequency system—26.5 kHz and 53 kHz—is considered. It is found that the maximum temperatures achievable can be appreciably increased with respect to single-frequency drive, still maintaining spherical stability, provided the dissolved inert gas concentration is kept extremely low in order to maintain diffusive stability.