Heterogeneous Cavitation in Liquid Helium 4 Near a Glass Plate

We have used a focused acoustic wave to study cavitation, i. e. the nucleation of bubbles, in liquid helium 4 near a clean glass plate. From the reflectance of light at the glass/helium interface, we measured the amplitude of the acoustic wave in the focal region and the nucleation pressure. From an analysis of the transmitted light we also measured the nucleation probability. We observed three different regimes with different statistics and threshold pressures in the range 0 to -3 bar, significantly less negative than for homogeneous cavitation.