Neutron Diffraction Study on the Crystal Orientation of Y-Ba-Cu-O Superconducting Material Aligned in the Magnetic Field

The preferred orientation of the YBa 2 Cu 3 O x crystallites aligned in the magnetic fields at room temperature was measured by means of the neutron diffraction technique. The higher the magnetic field, the better the crystal orientation. The FWHM of the Lorentzian function fitted to the preferred orientation of the [001] axis along the applied 7 T field was 16.86 deg. for the tetragonal phase and 13.10 deg. for the orthorhombic phase I of the material. The results suggest that the magnetic alignment technique could be used to increase the critical current density of the superconducting material.