BJERKNES FORCE THRESHOLD FOR STABLE SINGLE BUBBLE SONOLUMINESCENCE

An investigation of the primary Bjerknes force acting on a bubble in a strong acoustic field is presented. The approach takes into account t he nonlinear resonancelike response of small bubbles to strong acousti c pressure amplitudes. It is shown that for high pressure amplitudes e ven very small bubbles are repelled from the pressure antinode. This r esult is in contrast to predictions using Bjerknes forces based on har monic bubble oscillations. The relevance of this high pressure instabi lity for single bubble sonoluminescence experiments is discussed.