  The effect of an in-plane magnetic field upon open quasi-two-dimensional
electron and hole systems is investigated in terms of the carrier ground-state
spectrum. The magnetic field, classified as weak from the viewpoint of
correlation between size parameters of classical electron motion and the gate
potential spatial profile is shown to efficiently cut off extended modes from
the spectrum and to change singularly the mode density of states (MDOS). The
reduction in the number of current-carrying modes, right up to zero in magnetic
fields of moderate strength, can be viewed as the cause of
magnetic-field-driven metal-to-insulator transition widely observed in
two-dimensional systems. Both the mode number reduction and the MDOS
singularity appear to be most pronounced in the mode states dephasing
associated with their scattering by quenched-disorder potential. This sort of
dephasing is proven to dominate the dephasing which involves solely the
magnetic field whatever level of the disorder.
