Cavitation in liquid expanded and liquid condensed Langmuir monolayers induced by laser heating or microbubble coalescence is studied experimentally using fluorescence and Brewster angle microscopy. The kinetics of hole closure of two-dimensional (2D) gaseous cavitation bubbles exhibits a decelerated dynamics for cavities surrounded by a liquid expanded phase and an accelerated dynamics for cavities in a liquid condensed phase. Most of the cavities in liquid condensed phases possess a nonconvex shape and do not close. The results are compared with theoretical predictions derived for 2D cavitation of liquid monolayers of different surface shear viscosities, and for solid monolayers with diffusive flux of vacancies and interstitials. While part of the theory is in qualitative agreement with the experiment, the experimentally observed hole persistence within the liquid condensed phases and the hole closure within liquid expanded phases remains to be explained. The technique of microbubble coalescence might be particularly useful for the study of the rheological properties of hexatic phases.

• Received 17 October 2001

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.65.041603