Comparison of coherent and weakly incoherent transport models for the interlayer magnetoresistance of layered Fermi liquids

TL;DR

This paper compares coherent and weakly incoherent models of interlayer transport in layered Fermi liquids, revealing that both models produce similar angular magnetoresistance dependence except near parallel fields, impacting interpretation of AMRO experiments.

Contribution

It introduces a unified analysis of interlayer magnetoresistance models, showing their equivalence in most conditions and highlighting distinctive features of coherent transport.

Findings

Dependence of magnetoresistance on magnetic field direction is similar for both models.

A universal expression relates resistance at AMRO maxima/minima to magnetic field and scattering time.

Distinctive features of coherent transport include beat frequency, a peak in magnetoresistance, and a crossover in field dependence.

Abstract

The interlayer magnetoresistance of layered metals in a tilted magnetic field is calculated for two distinct models for the interlayer transport. The first model involves coherent interlayer transport and makes use of results of semi-classical or Bloch-Boltzmann transport theory. The second model involves weakly incoherent interlayer transport where the electron is scattered many times within a layer before tunneling into the next layer. The results are relevant to the interpretation of experiments on angular-dependent magnetoresistance oscillations (AMRO) in quasi-one- and quasi-two-dimensional metals. We find that the dependence of the magnetoresistance on the direction of the magnetic field is identical for both models except when the field is almost parallel to the layers. An important implication of this result is that a three-dimensional Fermi surface is not necessary for the observation of the Yamaji and Danner oscillations seen in quasi-two- and quasi-one-dimensional metals, respectively. A universal expression is given for the dependence of the resistance at AMRO maxima and minima on the magnetic field and scattering time (and thus the temperature). We point out three distinctive features of coherent interlayer transport: (i) a beat frequency in the magnetic oscillations of quasi-two-dimensional systems, (ii) a peak in the angular-dependent magnetoresistance when the field is sufficiently large and parallel to the layers, and (iii) a crossover from a linear to a quadratic field dependence for the magnetoresistance when the field is parallel to the layers. Properties (i) and (ii) are compared with published experimental data for a range of quasi-two-dimensional organic metals and for Sr2RuO4.