MgO thin films with different textures are fabricated by the ion beam assisted (IBAD) method on the Y2O3/Al2O3 buffered C276 tape. Then a CeO2 layer is directly grown on the IBAD-MgO film by the pulsed laser deposition (PLD) method. Effects of IBAD-MgO texture, substrate temperature and thickness on the grain alignment of the CeO2 layer are investigated. Film characterization is performed by x-ray diffraction and atomic force microscopy. It is found that the orientation and texture degree of the CeO2 layer are very sensitive to the IBAD-MgO texture. By optimizing the IBAD-MgO texture, CeO2 has pure (002) orientation and excellent biaxial texture deposited in a broad substrate temperature range. In addition, the PLD-CeO2 layer has a thickness effect. Under the optimized experimental condition, the PLD-CeO2 layer has a high in-plane texture of Δ𝜑 = 2.9 ∘ and a smooth surface with an rms surface roughness of less than 2 nm. The critical current density 𝐽c of a 0.4-𝜇m-thick YBCO film deposited on the CeO2 layer is 6.25 × 10 6 A/cm 2 at 77 K and a self-field.