A NEW DESCRIPTION OF THE BEHAVIOR OF METASTABLE SUPERCONDUCTING GRAINS SUSPENSIONS UNDER IRRADIATION

Intense or prolonged irradiation of suspensions of disordered Type I s uperconducting grains maintained in a superheated state creates a ''ho t border zone '' below the normal superheated transition boundary. Sub sequent increase of the applied magnetic field moves superconducting g rains across the border into the zone, for which only thermal nucleati on is possible until the highest local fields have again reached the u sual superheated-normal transition value. This model suggests that, co ntrary to conventional wisdoms, energy resolution is possible with suc h detectors using both relatively large grains and size distributions.