Heteroepitaxial growth of strained multilayer superconducting thin films of ${\mathrm{Nd}}_{1.83}$${\mathrm{Ce}}_{0.17}$${\mathrm{CuO}}_{\mathit{x}}$/${\mathrm{YBa}}_2$${\mathrm{Cu}}_3$${\mathrm{O}}_{7\mathrm{-}\mathrm{\delta }}$

Heteroepitaxial growth of strained multilayer thin films of ${\mathrm{YBa}}_2$ ${\mathrm{Cu}}_3$ ${\mathrm{O}}_{7\mathrm{-}\mathrm{\delta }}$/${\mathrm{Nd}}_{1.83}$ ${\mathrm{Ce}}_{0.17}$ ${\mathrm{CuO}}_{\mathit{x}}$ by pulsed-laser deposition is reported. The coherency strain results in biaxial compression of the tetragonal ${\mathrm{Nd}}_{1.83}$ ${\mathrm{Ce}}_{0.17}$ ${\mathrm{CuO}}_{\mathit{x}}$ layers, whereas the biaxial tension in the ${\mathrm{YBa}}_2$ ${\mathrm{Cu}}_3$ ${\mathrm{O}}_{7\mathrm{-}\mathrm{\delta }}$ layers removes the orthorhombic distortion and makes the unit cell isotropic in the basal plane (a=b). Depending on their oxygen content, either the ${\mathrm{YBa}}_2$ ${\mathrm{Cu}}_3$ ${\mathrm{O}}_{7\mathrm{-}\mathrm{\delta }}$ or the ${\mathrm{Nd}}_{1.83}$ ${\mathrm{Ce}}_{0.17}$ ${\mathrm{CuO}}_{\mathit{x}}$ layers are superconducting in these multilayers. The strain-induced structural modification has a significant influence on the superconducting transition temperature of the ${\mathrm{YBa}}_2$ ${\mathrm{Cu}}_3$ ${\mathrm{O}}_{7\mathrm{-}\mathrm{\delta }}$ layers.