  LaNiO$_3$ (LNO) is an intriguing member of the rare-earth nickelates in
exhibiting a metal-insulator transition for a critical film thickness of about
4 unit cells [Son et al., Appl. Phys. Lett. 96, 062114 (2010)]; however, such
thin films also show a transition to a metallic state in superlattices with
SrTiO$_3$ (STO) [Son et al., Appl. Phys. Lett. 97, 202109 (2010)]. In order to
better understand this transition, we have studied a strained LNO/STO
superlattice with 10 repeats of [4 unit-cell LNO/3 unit-cell STO] grown on an
(LaAlO$_3$)$_{0.3}$(Sr$_2$AlTaO$_6$)$_{0.7}$ substrate using soft x-ray
standing-wave-excited angle-resolved photoemission (SWARPES), together with
soft- and hard- x-ray photoemission measurements of core levels and
densities-of-states valence spectra. The experimental results are compared with
state-of-the-art density functional theory (DFT) calculations of band
structures and densities of states. Using core-level rocking curves and x-ray
optical modeling to assess the position of the standing wave, SWARPES
measurements are carried out for various incidence angles and used to determine
interface-specific changes in momentum-resolved electronic structure. We
further show that the momentum-resolved behavior of the Ni 3d eg and t2g states
near the Fermi level, as well as those at the bottom of the valence bands, is
very similar to recently published SWARPES results for a related
La$_{0.7}$Sr$_{0.3}$MnO$_3$/SrTiO$_3$ superlattice that was studied using the
same technique (Gray et al., Europhysics Letters 104, 17004 (2013)), which
further validates this experimental approach and our conclusions. Our
conclusions are also supported in several ways by comparison to DFT
calculations for the parent materials and the superlattice, including
layer-resolved density-of-states results.
