Magic angle effects in the interlayer magnetoresistance of quasi-one-dimensional metals due to interchain incoherence

Abstract

The dependence of the magnetoresistance of quasi-one-dimensional metals on the direction of the magnetic field show dips when the field is tilted at the so called magic angles determined by the structural dimensions of the materials. There is currently no accepted explanation for these magic angle effects. We present a possible explanation. Our model is based on the assumption that, the intralayer transport in the second most conducting direction has a small contribution from incoherent electrons. This incoherence is modelled by a small uncertainty in momentum perpendicular to the most conducting (chain) direction. Our model predicts the magic angles seen in interlayer transport measurements for different orientations of the field. We compare our results to predictions by other models and to experiment.