The Ultrasonic Bubble Chamber

• Published in: The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America Vol. 49; no. 1A_Supplement; p. 73
• Main Authors: Brown, R. C. A., Hilke, H. J., Jarman, P. D.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 01-01-1971
• ISSN: 0001-4966; 1520-8524
• DOI: 10.1121/1.1975945

Tracks from ionizing particles in liquid helium have been obtained at CERN using pulsed ultrasonic fields in the frequency range 100–400 kHz [R. C. A. Brown, H. J. Hilke, and A. H. Rogers, Nature 220, 1177–1178 (1968)]. However, with liquid hydrogen, ultrasonic techniques have so far only produced tracks when supplemented by some piston-produced expansion of the liquid [R. C. A. Brown, G. Harigel, and H. J. Hilke, Nucl. Instrum. Methods 82, 327–330 (1970)]. Experiments to define the optimum conditions for bubble growth and recompression in liquid helium have shown that a liquid-helium ultrasonic bubble chamber should be able to achieve a repetition rate of 100 Hz. Current developments are intended to produce a fast-cycling hydrogen bubble chamber sensitized purely by ultrasonic waves. A sound pressure amplitude of about 3 atm is required to do this, whereas only about 0.3 atm is needed for liquid helium.