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The inception of cavitation bubble clouds induced by high-intensity focused ultrasound

2006; Elsevier BV; Volume: 44; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/j.ultras.2006.05.021

1874-9968

Hong Chen, Xiaojing Li, Mingxi Wan,

Photoacoustic and Ultrasonic Imaging

In many therapeutic applications of high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) the appearance of cavitation bubbles is unavoidable, whereas the dynamics of the bubbles induced by HIFU have not been clarified. The objective of the present work is to observe the inception process of cavitation bubble clouds generated by HIFU transducer in water using high-speed photography. Sequential images captured within 600 μs after the onset of ultrasound transmission show the dynamics of cavitation bubbles' generation, growth, deformation, expansion and collapse in the focal region. However, when the observation time is narrowed to the initial 145 μs, both the still and streak images reveal that the cavitation bubbles astonishingly stay stable in the focal region for at least 60 μs. The results imply that through adjusting the HIFU exposure time while other physical parameters are appropriately chosen, it might be possible to control the generation of stable cavitation bubbles locally in the focal region.