  Heteroepitaxial superlattices of [YBa2Cu3O7(n)/ La0.67Ca0.33MnO3(m)]x, where
n and m are the number of YBCO and LCMO monolayers and x the number of bilayer
repetitions, have been grown with pulsed laser deposition on NdGaO3 (110) and
Sr0.7La0.3Al0.65Ta0.35O3 (LSAT) (001). These substrates are well lattice
matched with YBCO and LCMO and, unlike the commonly used SrTiO3, they do not
give rise to complex and uncontrolled strain effects due to structural
transitions at low temperature. The growth dynamics and the structure have been
studied in-situ with reflection high energy electron diffraction (RHEED) and
ex-situ with scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM), x-ray
diffraction, and neutron reflectometry. The individual layers are found to be
flat and continuous over long lateral distances with sharp and coherent
interfaces and with a well-defined thickness of the individual layer. The only
visible defects are antiphase boundaries in the YBCO layers that originate from
perovskite unit cell height steps at the interfaces with the LCMO layers. We
also find that the first YBCO monolayer at the interface with LCMO has an
unusual growth dynamics and is lacking the CuO chain layer while the subsequent
YBCO layers have the regular Y-123 structure. Accordingly, the CuO2 bilayers at
both the LCMO/YBCO and the YBCO/LCMO interfaces are lacking one of their
neighboring CuO chain layers and thus half of their hole doping reservoir.
Nevertheless, from electric transport measurements on asuperlattice with n=2 we
obtain evidence that the interfacial CuO2 bilayers remain conducting and even
exhibit the onset of a superconducting transition at very low temperature.
Finally, we show from dc magnetization and neutron reflectometry measurements
that the LCMO layers are strongly ferromagnetic.
