Measurement of the mechanical loss of crystalline samples using a nodal support

We measured the mechanical loss of crystalline anisotropic samples (silicon and sapphire) using a nodal support. The measured quality factor of the silicon sample reached 1.0 x 10(8) at room temperature. The sapphire sample showed lower quality factors, 6.4 x 10(7) at most, which were analytically confirmed to be dominated by surface loss. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.