A reappraisal of irreversible behaviour in the intermediate state of a type-I superconductor

Abstract

The nonequilibrium behaviour of the intermediate state of non-ellipsoidal specimens of type-I superconductors is well documented. We present the identification of a signal due to an octupole moment of this intermediate state in the magnetization measurements on a disc shaped Pb specimen. We can also identify a quasi-irreversibility temperature, like the HTSC materials, in the magnetization data on a Pb disc. However, its precise value at a given H depends on the orientation of the plane of the disc with respect to the applied field and it cannot be treated as a material characteristics of Pb.