Textures in Ceramic Superconductors

Abstract

Textures in bulk Y–Ba–Cu–O superconducting materials were studied. Texturing methods are based on the paramagnetic anisotropy, grain‐dimension anisotropy and surface‐energy anisotropy of the crystals. Five incomplete X‐ray pole figures including four superimposed ones were measured for the ODF calculation. The ODFs were calculated with the series expansion method including the positivity method by means of an iteration process.The results show that a strong (001)‐fibre texture can be achieved by magnetic alignment but the density of the materials after sintering is still too low. The grain‐dimension effect which exists in nearly all powder‐forming process, is very weak for texturing of the materials. The surface texture depends on recrystallization of the powder particles.