Influence of dissolved gas on optical breakdown and small-angle scattering of light in liquids

It is demonstrated that the small-angle laser beam scattering pattern in liquid depends greatly on the dissolved gas content: the intensity of the scattering steeply drops after degassing doubly distilled water. It was experimentally found that the parameters or small-angle scattering of light correlate strongly with those of optical breakdown in liquid. Namely, the fractal dimension and the gyration radius of scatterers in aqueous KCl solutions behave similar to the optical breakdown probability in those liquids versus salt concentration, while the optical breakdown cannot be induced after degassing. The effect might be associated with the presence of stable gas microbubbles in liquid. (C) 1997 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.