Published online by Cambridge University Press: 31 January 2011
To reduce grain boundary weak links due to large-angle grain orientation mismatch, bulk (thick film) EuBa2Cu3O7−δ high-Tc superconductor specimens were biaxially aligned by a mechanical force such that their [001] axes were perpendicular to the specimen surfaces and by a magnetic force so as to orient their [010] axes to lie parallel to the magnetic field direction in the specimen plane. We describe here the characterization of such EuBa2Cu3O7−δ thick films by φ-circle XRD scans of (013) reflections, demonstrating a high degree (33%) of c-axis alignment with FWHM of <5° and approximately Gaussian distributions of a, b-axis alignment with a FWHM of 47°. The formation of “granular single crystals”, toward which this work is a further advance, can be seen as establishing a new paradigm in ceramics science.