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