Texture Characterization of High-Temperature Superconductor Wires

Texture measurements have been made for BSCCO tapes produced by dip coating and by powder-in-tube techniques. The texture of the Bi2212 grains was characterized for both c axis texture using (001) pole figures from 008 reflections and a–b axis texture using (115) pole figures. The critical current densities of these tapes were also measured and correlated with texture parameters obtained from contours of the pole figures. For the tapes with good current transport, the arrangement of grains in a crystallographic sense was inferred from the pole figures and was found to be consistent with a model based on global alignment of the c axes and the presence of colonies of grains differing mostly in c axis twist.