Influence of surface faceting of RABiT-type metallic substrate on epitaxial film growth

Surface faceting is a well-known phenomenon occurring in either metallic or oxide materials. It is due to thermal etching favoured by high-temperature annealing in vacuum, and leads to the formation of steps or facets on the surface. The occurrence of surface faceting on cube-textured metallic substrates for YBCO coated conductor has been only seldom reported and its influence on the epitaxial growth of both buffer and superconducting layers has never been considered. In this paper, we studied the effect of the annealing conditions on the surface morphology of Ni- and Ni-Cu-based cube-textured metallic substrates and the influence of the obtained surface morphology on epitaxial film grown by both physical vapour and chemical solution deposition techniques. We confirm that annealing in reducing atmosphere suppresses both surface faceting and grain boundary grooving. Such a surface is beneficial for epitaxial film growth as it leads to smoother and featureless surfaces. On the other hand, from a microstructural point of view, film deposition on a faceted substrate shows a sharper orientation.