Bubble chamber as a trace chemical detector

Conference · Tue Dec 31 04:00:00 EST 1996

OSTI ID:539064

Luo, Xin; McCreary, E I; Atencio, J H ^[1]

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1. Los Alamos National Lab., NM (United States); and others

We have developed a novel concept of trace chemical analysis by detecting optical absorption in superheated liquid. The technique exploits the fact that many common solvents can be extensively superheated for a short period of time while maintaining their liquid state. During this time, the superheated liquid is extremely sensitive to boiling at nucleation sites produced by energy deposition. A small energy deposition can initiate nucleation within the superheated liquid. The nucleation center of critical size or larger will spontaneously grow through evaporation of the superheated liquid. Observation of bubbles in the superheated liquid in some sense provides `amplification` for the initial energy deposition. Bubble chambers containing superheated liquids have been used to detect energetic particles, now we demonstrate that we can use a bubble chamber to detect trace species in superheated liquid propane by observing the bubble formation initiated by optical absorption. Crystal violet used as an initial test case can be detected at the sub-per-trillion level. The mechanism for bubble formation and ideas for further improvement will also be discussed.

• OSTI ID: 539064
• Report Number(s): CONF-960807--
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

40 CHEMISTRY
BOILING
BUBBLE CHAMBERS
CHEMICAL ANALYSIS
EVAPORATION
HEATING
LIQUIDS
PROPANE
SOLVENTS
TRACE AMOUNTS