Anisotropic magnetoresistance in lightly doped La(2)-(x)Sr(x)CuO(4): impact of antiphase domain boundaries on the electron transport.

Detailed behavior of the magnetoresistance (MR) is studied in lightly doped antiferromagnetic La(1.99)Sr(0.01)CuO(4), where, thanks to the weak-ferromagnetic moment due to spin canting, the antiferromagnetic (AF) domain structure can be manipulated by the magnetic field. The MR behavior demonstrates that CuO(2) planes indeed contain antiphase AF-domain boundaries in which charges are confined, forming antiphase stripes. The data suggest that a high magnetic field turns the antiphase stripes into in-phase stripes, and the latter appear to give better conduction than the former, which challenges the notion that the antiphase character of stripes facilitates charge motion.