Transmission electron microscopy investigation of Bi-2223/Ag tapes

The microstructure of (Bi,Pb)(2)Sr2Ca2CuOx (Bi-2223) tapes has been investi gated by means of transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and high-resolutio n TEM. The emphasis has been placed on: (1) an examination of the grain mor phology and size, (2) grain and colony boundary angles, which are formed du ring the tape processing, (3) a study of the grain boundaries on an atomic scale, including intergrowth investigations. Tapes with different process p arameters have been compared with respect to the microstructure. A fully pr ocessed tape has on the average 50% thicker Bi-2223 grains than a tape afte r the first annealing. The angles of c-axis tilt grain boundaries are on av erage 14 degrees and 26 degrees for the fully processed tape and the tape a fter the first annealing, respectively. The intergrowth content(15%) and di stribution are similar in these two tapes. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. A ll rights reserved.