Intergrain critical current density of Y123 bicrystal films grown by LPE method

We succeeded in producing Y123 bicrystal films with straight grain boundaries by the LPE method. The Y123 bicrystal films were grown on MgO bicrystal substrates with 24/spl deg/ misorientation angle. TEM images show that the grain boundary consists of straight single facets of about 50 /spl mu/m length. J/sub c/ across the grain boundary at 77 K in zero magnetic field, 1.4/spl times/10/sup 4/ A/cm/sup 2/, was one order lower than that of the intragrain, /spl sim/10/sup 5/ A/ cm/sup 2/. This suppression rate of J/sub c/ in bicrystal films with tilt angle 24/spl deg/ is lower than that in films grown by PVD methods such as PLD. The normal resistance of the intergrain boundary is small, which indicates that the effective width of the straight interface is very narrow.