Thermodynamic Consistency of Critical Field and Specific Heat Data for Superconducting Sn and In

Abstract

The accuracy with which recent experimental data satisfy the thermodynamic relations between the magnetic and calorimetric properties of a superconductor is considered in detail. A convenient and sensitive procedure for calculating the entropy and specific heat differences from critical field data is described. The resulting values are compared with corresponding quantities derived from published calorimetric measurements. Agreement is good over most of the temperature range of the observations. It is concluded that critical field measurements are capable of yielding the changes in the thermodynamic properties at the transition with an accuracy at least equal to that achieved so far in calorimetric work.