Abstract

Thermodynamic arguments show that a sonoluminescing bubble that acts as a black body can absorb energy from a high power, pulsed laser beam. The mechanism for increasing the temperature of a sonoluminescing bubble is discussed and experiments with a frequency doubled, pulsed Nd:YAG laser are described. A bound for the amount of radiation absorbed is given as no evidence for heating was found at the low radiation intensity employed in the experiments. © EDP Sciences/Societé Italiana di Fisica/Springer-Verlag 2008.