We report the physical properties of La0.7Sr0.3MnO3 thin films on Sr2IrO4 single crystals. The manganite films are deposited using oxide molecular beam epitaxy on flux-grown (001)-oriented iridate crystals. Temperature-dependent magnetotransport and x-ray magnetic circular dichroism measurements reveal the presence of a ferromagnetic metallic ground state in the films, consistent with films grown on SrTiO3 and La0.3Sr0.7Al0.65Ta0.35O3. A parallel resistance model is used to separate conduction effects within the Sr2IrO4 substrate and the La0.7Sr0.3MnO3 thin films, revealing that the measured resistance maximum does not correspond to the manganite Curie temperature but results from a convolution of properties of the near-insulating substrate and metallic film. The ability to grow and characterize epitaxial perovskites on Sr2IrO4 crystals enables a new route for studying magnetism at oxide interfaces in the presence of strong spin-orbit interactions.

Control of structural coupling at complex-oxide interfaces is a powerful platform for creating ultrathin layers with electronic and magnetic properties unattainable in the bulk. However, with the capability to design and control the electronic structure of such buried layers and interfaces at a unit-cell level, a new challenge emerges to be able to probe these engineered emergent phenomena with depth-dependent atomic resolution as well as element- and orbital selectivity. Here, we utilize a combination of core-level and valence-band soft x-ray standing-wave photoemission spectroscopy, in conjunction with scanning transmission electron microscopy, to probe the depth-dependent and single-unit-cell resolved electronic structure of an isovalent manganite superlattice [Eu0.7Sr0.3MnO3/La0.7Sr0.3MnO3]×15 wherein the electronic-structural properties are intentionally modulated with depth via engineered oxygen octahedra rotations/tilts and A-site displacements. Our unit-cell resolved measurements reveal significant transformations in the local chemical and electronic valence-band states, which are consistent with the layer-resolved first-principles theoretical calculations, thus opening the door for future depth-resolved studies of a wide variety of heteroengineered material systems.