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Grain orientations and grain boundary networks of YBa2Cu3O7−δ films deposited by metalorganic and pulsed laser deposition on biaxially textured Ni–W substrates

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2006

D.M. Feldmann*
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, Wisconsin 53706
T.G. Holesinger
Affiliation:
Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545
C. Cantoni
Affiliation:
Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831
R. Feenstra
Affiliation:
Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831
N.A. Nelson
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, Wisconsin 53706
D.C. Larbalestier
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, Wisconsin 53706
D.T. Verebelyi
Affiliation:
American Superconductor, Westborough, Massachusetts 01581
X. Li
Affiliation:
American Superconductor, Westborough, Massachusetts 01581
M. Rupich
Affiliation:
American Superconductor, Westborough, Massachusetts 01581
*
a) Address all correspondence to this author. e-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

We report a detailed study of the grain orientations and grain boundary (GB) networks in YBa2Cu3O7-δ (YBCO) films ∼0.8 μm thick grown by both the in situ pulsed laser deposition (PLD) process and the ex situ metalorganic deposition (MOD) process on rolling-assisted biaxially textured substrates (RABiTS). The PLD and MOD growth processes result in columnar and laminar YBCO grain structures, respectively. In the MOD-processed sample [full-width critical current density Jc(0 T, 77 K) = 3.4 MA/cm2], electron back-scatter diffraction (EBSD) revealed an improvement in both the in-plane and out-of-plane alignment of the YBCO relative to the template that resulted in a significant reduction of the total grain boundary misorientation angles. A YBCO grain structure observed above individual template grains was strongly correlated to larger out-of-plane tilts of the template grains. YBCO GBs meandered extensively about their corresponding template GBs and through the thickness of the film. In contrast, the PLD-processed film [full width Jc(0 T, 77 K) = 0.9 MA/cm2] exhibited nearly perfect epitaxy, replicating the template grain orientations. No GB meandering was observed in the PLD-processed film with EBSD. Direct transport measurement of the intra-grain Jc(0 T, 77 K) values of PLD and MOD-processed films on RABiTS revealed values up to 4.5 and 5.1 MA/cm2, respectively. As the intra-grain Jc values were similar, the significantly higher full-width Jc for the MOD-processed sample is believed to be due to the improved grain alignment and extensive GB meandering.

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Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2006

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