  The most anisotropic high temperature superconductors like Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8, as
well as the recently discovered layered manganite La1.4Sr1.6Mn2O7 are layered
metallic systems where the interlayer current transport occurs via sequential
tunneling of charge carriers. As a consequence, in Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8 adjacent CuO2
double layers form an intrinsic Josephson tunnel junction while in in
La1.4Sr1.6Mn2O7 tunneling of spin polarized charge carriers between adjacent
MnO2 layers leads to an intrinsic spin valve effect. We present and discuss
interlayer transport experiments for both systems. To perform the experiments
small sized mesa structures were patterned on top of single crystals of the
above materials defining stacks of a small number of intrinsic Josephson
junctions and intrinsic spin valves, respectively.
