Characterization of microtexture in Bi-2223 tapes using electron back-scatter patternorientation imaging

Abstract

Automated orientation measurements using electron back-scatter pattern analysis have been taken onsamples of (BiPb)2Sr2Ca2Cu3Ox (Bi-2223) tapes produced using the powder-in-tube method. A strongc-axis fibre texture was found, with almost 90% of the Bi-2223material having a crystal direction normal to the tape surface within10° of [001]. The intensity along the fibre texture was found to be almost random, in contrastto some previously reported investigations. An analysis of the misorientations betweenadjacent plates revealed strong correlations. The measured misorientation angle and axisdistributions were compared against those for random pairs of orientations correspondingto the same overall texture, revealing a preference for low angle misorientationboundaries, and a preference for misorientation axes to lie along [010]–[110] for low(<20°) misorientation angles. Although many plates are tilted with respect to the tape surface,the majority of the boundary area per unit volume is more twist than tilt in character.