Development of methods of precise ultrasonic measurements in small volumes of liquids

The application of ultrasonic methods to investigation of problems of molecular physics and molecular biology is greatly limited by the necessity of precise measurements of ultrasound velocity and absorption in small volumes of liquids. Fixed path interferometric methods are the most adequate for such measurements in the low MHz region. In this paper disadvantages of the present interferometric methods of ultrasonic measurements are considered and new resonator cells and a simple device for such measurements are described. Accuracies of 10 −4% for the velocity change and to better than 1% for the attenuation change, at frequencies of about 7 MHz, are obtained by the device described. The volumes of the resonator cells vary within 0.1 to 0.8 ml depending on the purpose of investigation.