Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 February 2011
Optical microscopy and transmission electron microscopy show that most of the crystalline grains in Y1Ba2Cu3O7−x superconducting specimens have large number of twins. These bands of different image contrast have similar microdiffraction patterns. However the diffraction conditions are different and correspond to different tilts of the crystalline grains along one of the zone axis. HREM images of these twin boundaries indicate that the boundary area has appreciable dimensions and both matrix and twin crystals show the existence of a superstructure with double of the common periodicity obtained under [001] diffraction conditions.