Orientational effect in the magnetoresistance of organic conductors

The asymptotic behavior of the magnetoresistance of layered conductors of organic origin is discussed for different orientations of a high magnetic field H relative to the layers. It is shown that when current flows along the normal n to the layers, the amplitude of the Shubnikov-de Haas quantum oscillations and the smoothly varying part of the magnetoresistance increase sharply at certain angles theta between the vectors H and n. An experimental study of the orientational effect in a high magnetic field yields detailed information about the electron energy spectrum of quasi-two-dimensional conductors. (C) 2001 American Institute of Physics.