Anomalous isotopic effect in multibubble sonoluminescence of aqueous solutions of terbium chloride

An anomalously low isotope effect has been discovered in 20-kHz sonoluminescence of terbium chloride solutions in H₂O-D₂O mixtures. The intensity of luminescence in the characteristic 488-and 545-nm lines of the Tb³⁺ ion, which are observed against the solvent continuum (230–700 nm), increases with the content of D₂O to a maximum value of 4.0 ± 0.4, whereas the isotope effect in photoluminescence of the same solutions reaches 10 ± 1.0. The result is explained using the model of nonexponential decay of sonoluminescence of Tb³⁺ ions. These ions, which are formed in an excited state in cavitation bubbles, first undergo radiative and radiationless deactivation in the gas phase. However, some excited ions enter the solution bulk, because the excitation lifetime is longer than the average bubble lifetime. At the first stage, the isotope effect is small, because the density of the gas phase is low and quenching by solvent molecules is weak. At the second stage, the isotope effect coincides with the effect in usual photoluminescence in the solution. The total decrease in the effect in sonoluminescence depends on the weight of the “gas” stage of deactivation of excited Tb³⁺ ions.