Emergent behavior of LaNiO₃ in short-periodic nickelate superlattices

Heterostructure engineering provides an efficient way to obtain several emergent phases of LaNiO₃, as demonstrated in recent studies. In this work, a new class of short-periodic superlattice, consisting of LaNiO₃ and EuNiO₃, has been grown by pulsed laser interval deposition to investigate the effect of structural symmetry mismatch on the electronic and magnetic behaviors. Using synchrotron-based soft and hard X-ray resonant scattering experiments, we have found that these heterostructures undergo simultaneous electronic and magnetic transitions. Most importantly, LaNiO₃ within these artificial structures exhibits a new antiferromagnetic, charge ordered insulating phase, which may be a potential candidate to achieve high temperature superconductivity.