Cavitation luminescence of argon-saturated alkali-metal solutions from a conical bubble

In 1,2-propanediol solutions containing sodium chloride, spectra of luminescence from a collapsed conical bubble have been detected. Results show that the spectra consist of a broad continuum background, on which a resonance line arising from de-excitation of sodium atom at 589 nm and two satellite diffuse bands at ∼554 nm and 620 nm respectively are superimposed. These are confirmed to be the emission from alkali-metal–argon exciplexes and are suggested to occur when the mixtures of alkali metal vapour and argon are rapidly compressed. The intracavity density of argon deduced from the line shift of Na resonance line data is estimated to be about 2 × 1026 m−3.