Opacity and transport measurements reveal that dilute plasma models of sonoluminescence are not valid.

A strong interaction between a nanosecond laser and a 70 μm radius sonoluminescing plasma is achieved. The overall response of the system results in a factor of 2 increase in temperature as determined by its spectrum. Images of the interaction reveal that light energy is absorbed and trapped in a region smaller than the sonoluminescence emitting region of the bubble for over 100 ns. We interpret this opacity and transport measurement as demonstrating that sonoluminescencing bubbles can be 1000 times more opaque than what follows from the Saha equation of statistical mechanics in the ideal plasma limit. To address this discrepancy, we suggest that the effects of strong Coulomb interactions are an essential component of a first principles theory of sonoluminescence.