A Monte Carlo simulation study was made of the effects of a variation in grain boundary energy with misorientation, and of large lattice misfits (»3%) between film and substrate, upon grain growth in films. The results of grain growth simulation in YBa2Cu3O7-x films were found to agree with previous experimental observations of preferred grain orientations for YBa2Cu3O7-x films deposited onto various substrates such as (001)MgO and (001) yttria-stabilized zirconia. The simulation helped to identify 3 factors which influenced the competition of the [001] tilt boundaries. These were: the relative depths of local minima in the boundary energy versus misorientation curve, the number of combinations of coincidence epitaxy orientations contributing to the exact misorientation for each of the high-angle low-energy boundaries and the number of combinations of coincidence epitaxy orientations within the angular ranges which bracketed each of the exact high-angle low-energy boundaries. These factors could be used to clarify the origin of the special misorientations which were observed experimentally.

Grain Growth Simulation of [001] Textured YBCO Films Grown on (001) Substrates with Large Lattice Misfit - Prediction of Misorientations of the Remaining Boundaries. J.W.H.Tsai, S.Ling, J.C.Rodriguez, Z.Mustapha, S.W.Chan: Journal of Electronic Materials, 2001, 30[4], 422-31