Characterization of textured NiO films for application as buffer layers in high temperature superconducting tapes

Textured NiO films have been grown, by thermal oxidation, on biaxially textured Ni substrates. The films have been characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD). The XRD results showed two texture components, cube texture (001)[100] and (111) with out of plane orientation only. SEM showed much inhomogeneity of grain size on the sample surface. Analysis by EBSD revealed that coarse grained regions were cube textured and fine grained regions were <111> fibre textured. The ability to correlate textural and microstructural data is crucial to the optimization of textured NiO films for use in coated conductor technology.