An extremely thin bilayer electrolyte consisting of yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) and gadolinia-doped ceria (GDC) is successfully fabricated on a sintered NiO-YSZ substrate. Major processing flaws are effectively eliminated by applying local constraints to YSZ nanoparticles, and excellent open circuit voltage and cell performance are demonstrated in a solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) at intermediate operating temperatures.