Cube-textured nickel substrates for high-temperature superconductors

The biaxial textures created in metals by rolling and annealing make them useful substrates for the growth of long lengths of biaxially textured material. The growth of overlayers such as high-temperature superconductors requires flat substrates with a single, sharp texture. A sharp cube texture is produced in high-purity Ni by rolling and annealing. We report the effect of rolling reduction and annealing conditions on the sharpness of the cube texture, the incidence of other orientations, the grain size and the surface topography. A combination of high reduction and high-temperature annealing in a reducing atmosphere leads to >99% cube texture, with a mosaic of about the rolling direction, about the transverse direction, and about the normal direction.