Multibubble sonoluminescence pulses from Na atoms in viscous liquid.

Multibubble sonoluminescence pulses of Na and continuum emissions were measured from NaCl-ethylene glycol solution saturated with Xe at 28 kHz. The Na emission consisted of multiple-peak pulses and single pulses. The intrinsic pulse width estimated from single pulses was 0.37 ns, which differs from 10-165 ns obtained by previous work. High-speed shadowgraphs of bubble dynamics and high-speed movies (32000 fps) of sonoluminescence were observed. The observations suggest that the multiple-peak pulse is due to the superposition of single peaks resulting from bubbles fragmented from a characteristic bubble which repeats the fragmentation and coalescence. This phenomenon may be specific to viscous liquids.