We have found that Fermi contours of a two-dimensional electron gas at
\rmGaAs/Al_xGa_{1-x}As interface deviate from a standard circular shape under
the combined influence of an approximately triangular confining potential and
the strong in-plane magnetic field. The distortion of a Fermi contour manifests
itself through an increase of the electron effective cyclotron mass which has
been measured by the cyclotron resonance in the far-infrared transmission
spectra and by the thermal damping of Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations in tilted
magnetic fields with an in-plane component up to 5 T. The observed increase of
the cyclotron effective mass reaches almost 5 \% of its zero field value which
is in good agreement with results of a self-consistent calculation.Comment: 4 pages, Revtex, figures can be obtained on request from
[email protected]; to appear in Phys. Rev. B (in press). No changes, the
corrupted submission replace