A pure oxygen atmosphere during liquid-phase epitaxial (LPE) growth of YBa2Cu3O
x
(YBCO) significantly affected
the crystalline orientation of the grown films. In the previous investigation, only the c-axis-oriented YBCO film can be obtained
from the melt with a 3.0:5.0 Ba:Cu ratio under a typical air atmosphere. However, in our present study, it was found that high-quality a-axis-oriented films readily grew from the flux with a 3.0:5.0 Ba:Cu ratio when the atmosphere was changed to pure
oxygen. Furthermore, the growth “window” of a-axis films was obviously enlarged compared with experimental results in the air
atmosphere. On the basis of the “surface migration” theory, we elucidate the origin of a-axis growth promotion by a suppression of
the migration ability of the growth species in the melt with increasing content of oxygen.