The interfacial structure of orthogonally oriented twins in YBa2Cu3O7

Interfaces such as the twin boundary and grain boundary in YBa2Cu3O7-δ are thought to be important in reconciling the large discrepancy between the low critical-current density observed in bulk polycrystalline. Recently, we studied another type of frequently encountered interface, i.e., the interface between the orthogonally orientated (110) and (-110) twins. In the vicinity of the interface, the crystal has a characteristic geometry because of additional constrains due to the impediment and the local orientational difference. The impinging twins usually have a wedge shape (Fig. la), and when the wedge slope is large, the tip of the twin splits (Fig. lb). A HREM image of a tapered twin is shown in Fig.2. Four twin variants give rise to five boundaries. Boundaries between IV-III, III-IV, IV-II, and II-IV are twin boundaries, while II-III, which has no apparent structure, is the interface of the orthogonal twins. If there is no constrain, the orientation of II and III should be equivalent (Fig.3a and 3b); however, we observed that the lattice in II does not align with that in III.