Superconducting fluctuations and magnetoconductance measurements of thin films in parallel magnetic fields

Parallel magnetoconductance measurements have been made on thin Cu-Pb films having different spin-orbit interactions. A theory of parallel magnetoconductance, first proposed by Al'tshuler and Aronov and expanded by Gershenzon, Gubankov, and Zhuravlev gives a qualitative description of the experimental results. However, this theory fails to account for the low-temperature dependence of the magnetoconductance data at low temperatures. The temperature dependence of the conductivity in fixed parallel fields was studied and compared to the theory of Markiewicz; agreement between theory and data was acceptable. Several of the films exhibited superconducting fluctuations; measurements of the parallel magnetoconductance give values of the parameter {β}(T/Tc) in fair agreement with the theoretical values predicted by Larkin.