Cavitation induced by CW lasers in absorbing liquids

Novel results are presented on thermocavitation in highly absorbing solutions using CW low power laser (λ=975 nm). Due to the large absorption coefficient (135 cm-1) at the laser wavelength, penetration length is only ~74μm inside the liquid and asymmetric bubbles are generated near the beam's entrance wall. We report the temporal dynamic of the cavitation bubble, which is much shorter than previously reported. We found that the amplitude of the shock wave decreases exponentially with the beam power. As shown in this work, thermocavitation is a phenomenon that has a great application potential in areas such as ultrasonic waves generation and controlled tissue ablation for use in lithotripsy.