Introduction

The same set of samples described in the previous entry have been annealed at 500C for 9 hours. Then the loss angles have been measured again.

Results

The plot below shows the measured loss angle for all modes and all samples. After annealing all loss angles are significantly decreased, and they also show an increasing trend with frequency. As before, the blue points are the measurement points (averages of 8 ring-downs each) and the error bars are computed from the statistical error of the measurments. The red line shows the average of the loss angles for frequencies below 15 kHz, weigthed with the data points uncertainties. The red shaded area shows the 95% confidence interval of the mean.

If we plot the frequency-averaged loss angle as a function of the serial number, we see that there isn't much of a spread in the values:

We can again plot the loss angle as a function of the process variables. There are three main parameters that are changed in the deposition: the assist beam voltage, the assist beam current and the content of oxygen in the assist beam. The plots below show the losses as a function of those parameters. The x axis changes in each of the four panels, and for each plot, the color code is linked to one of the process variables:

This time I can't see much of a trend anywhere in those plots.

Linear fit

Since the loss angles show a clear increasing trend with frequency, instead of computing the mean value, I fit each dataset with a linear dependency on the frequency. To improve the fit I restricted the computations only to frequencies below 12 kHz. The results are shown below

The following plot shows the fitted loss angle at 1 kHz, as a function of the serial number. There is more spread in the results than when using the simple average:

And again, the dependency of the loss angle at 1 kHz on the process parameters:

The lowest loss angle is obtaine on sample S1600525, which was deposited without oxygen, low current and low voltage. But it's also the one sample that was deposited in a precedent separate run, and annealed twice at 500C.