Diamagnetism and flux creep in bilayer exciton superfluids

Abstract

We discuss the diamagnetism induced in an isolated quantum Hall bilayer with total filling factor one by an in-plane magnetic field. This is a signature of counterflow superfluidity in these systems. We calculate magnetically induced currents in the presence of pinned vortices nucleated by charge disorder, and predict a history-dependent diamagnetism that could persist on laboratory timescales. For current samples we find that the maximum in-plane moment is small, but with stronger tunneling the moments would be measurable using torque magnetometry. Such experiments would allow the persistent currents of a counterflow superfluid to be observed in an electrically isolated bilayer.

8 pages, 2 figures. v2: updated to accepted version, extended presentation