Effects of surface relief on the texture formation of melt-solidified YBa_2Cu_3O_z thick films on metal substrates

摘要

Biaxial orientation of up to 75-85% of YBa_2Cu_3O_z square crystals of 0.1-1 mm size was achieved on polycrystalline Ag-Pd substrates with artificial surface reliefs by adopting the principles of artificial epitaxy and a shape-preserving low-temperature infiltration process. Unlike artificial epitaxy for thin films, the crystal alignment was attained repro-ducibly by mechanical patterning of the substrates at a large, millimeter length-scale. Texture formation might be related to various factors like solute redistribution in a multicomponent system, capillarity, crystallization pressure and wall effects. Possible applications of this approach for coated conductors or in the field of multiseeded substrates are discussed.