In this study a single laser pulse spatially shaped into a ring is focused into a thin water layer, creating an annular cavitation bubble and cylindrical shock waves: an outer shock that diverges away from the excitation laser ring and an inner shock that focuses towards the center. A few nanoseconds after the converging shock reaches the focus and diverges away from the center, a single bubble nucleates at the center. The inner diverging shock then reaches the surface of the annular laser-induced bubble and reflects at the boundary, initiating nucleation of a tertiary bubble cloud. In the present experiments, we have performed time-resolved imaging of shock propagation and bubble wall motion. Our experimental observations of single-bubble cavitation and collapse and appearance of ring-shaped bubble clouds are consistent with our numerical simulations that solve a one dimensional Euler equation in cylindrical coordinates. The numerical results agree qualitatively with the experimental observations of the appearance and growth of bubble clouds at the smallest laser excitation rings. Our technique of shock-driven bubble cavitation opens novel perspectives for the investigation of shock-induced single-bubble or multi-bubble cavitation phenomena in thin liquids.
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