Transverse negative magnetoresistance of two-dimensional structures in the presence of a strong in-plane magnetic field: Weak localization as a probe of interface roughness

The interference induced transverse negative magnetoresistance of GaAs/InxGa1-xAs/GaAs quantum well heterostructures has been studied in the presence of strong in-plane magnetic field. It is shown that the effect of in-plane magnetic field is determined by the interface roughness and strongly depends on the relationship between mean free path, phase breaking length, and roughness correlation length. Analysis of the experimental results allows us to estimate parameters of short- and long-range correlated roughness which have been found in a good agreement with atomic force microscopy data obtained for just the same samples.