Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8 crystal was polished into a prism shape that eliminates
the geometrical barrier and results in a fully reversible magnetizatio
n at T greater than or similar to 76 K. The vortex-lattice melting was
determined independently by the magnetization step at the transition.
At elevated temperatures the irreversibility line (IL) lies in the vo
rtex-solid region significantly below the melting line, whereas at low
er temperatures the IL is high within the vortex-liquid phase and is d
ue to surface barriers. The results clearly demonstrate that the IL an
d melting stem from different and unrelated physical mechanisms.