Texturing of (RE)BaCuO thick films by geometrical arrangement of reactive precursors

Texturing of superconductors is essential to achieve high critical current densities. For coatings or coated conductors the symmetry-anisotropy of the substrate has a major impact on the formation of a biaxial texture. The substrate symmetry is broken for example by a rolling texture in the RABiTS process or by anisotropic damage in the IBAD process. However, anisotropy can also be introduced by using multiphase substrates, providing an anisotropic but regular arrangement of the individual phases. Such an arrangement leads to anisotropic growth conditions owing to the different properties of the phases involved. Moreover, nucleation is probably influenced by the aligned boundaries between the substrate phases. As a preliminary result obtained from infiltration of regularly arranged fibres, preferred growth along the fibre directions is observed.