Negative Magnetoresistance in the Variable-Range-Hopping Transport of Strongly Underdoped La$\text{}_{2-x}$Sr$\text{}_{x}$CuO$\text{}_{4}$

The in-plane transport of strongly underdoped La$\text{}_{2-x}$Sr$\text{}_{x}$CuO$\text{}_{4}$ films was examined in the magnetic fields up to 14 T and in temperatures down to 1.6 K. While at high temperatures the samples display metallic-like resistivity, the low-T transport is governed by variable-range-hopping mechanism. Careful analysis shows that the temperature dependence of pre-exponential factor in Mott's variable-range-hopping law may not be neglected and that the density of states at the Fermi level can be effectively expressed as g(E-E$\text{}_{F}$)=N$\text{}_{0}$ (E-E$\text{}_{F}$)$\text{}^{p}$, with a small exponent p of the order of 0.1. In the magnetic field parallel to CuO$\text{}_{2}$ planes one of the variable-range-hopping parameter,ρ$\text{}_{0}$, increases by about 20-25%, while the other one, T$\text{}_{0}$, decreases by about 10-15%, resulting in the decrease in total resistivity. This effect may be related to the decrease of the tunneling barrier between different antiferromagnetic clusters in the presence of magnetic field.