Distinguishing crystallographic misorientations of lanthanum zirconate epilayers on nickel substrates by electron backscatter diffraction.

Electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) was used for distinguishing crystallographic orientations and local lattice misfits of a La(2)Zr(2)O(7) (LZO) buffer layer epitaxially grown on a cube textured Ni-5.%W (Ni-W) substrate for a YBCO superconductor film. Orientation data were obtained from the LZO epilayer using low energy primary electrons (5keV) and from the Ni-W substrate by increasing the voltage to 15keV. In-plane and out-of-plane orientations of the LZO epilayer were revealed with respect to its Ni-W substrate. A strong {100} 〈011〉 rotated-cube texture in the LZO epilayer was formed on the {100} 〈001〉 cube-textured Ni-W substrates. LZO and Ni in-plane crystallographic axes are related by an expected 45° rotation. The step-misorientations and the local misfit strains between the LZO epilayer and the substrate were also analyzed.