Crystal growth patterns in MgO seeded Y1.8Ba2.4Cu3.4Oy/Ag melt-texturing process

Present work shows that the MgO seeded Y1.8Ba2.4Cu3.4Oy/Ag crystal patterns grown by the isothermal solidification usually have two basic types of gro wth facets. One is high-angle rotation about the (100) plane of MgO single crystal, while the other is parallel to the plane. The preferred growth wit h 45 degrees rotation is enhanced to be only one type as the undercooling d ecreases. The domain structure is checked by transmission electron microsco py and selected area electron diffraction. Lattice matching relationship be tween MgO and Y123 in the melt-texturing process agrees with what is seen i n various vapor phase epitaxial growths as well as the predictions of simpl ified near coincidence site lattice theory. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.