Electrical and magnetic properties of (SrMnO3)n∕(LaMnO3)2n superlattices

Abstract

We report the magnetic and transport properties of [(SrMnO3)n∕(LaMnO3)2n]m superlattices grown by molecular-beam epitaxy on (100) SrTiO3 with periodicities n=1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, and 16. Although the superlattice constituents, LaMnO3 and SrMnO3, are both antiferromagnetic insulators, for small n (n⩽2) the superlattices behave like the ferromagnetic conductor La0.67Sr0.33MnO3. As n increases, the magnetic properties become dominated by the LaMnO3 layers, but the electronic transport properties continue to be controlled by the interfaces.