Coercivity and the critical switching field

The critical switching field and the coercivity of a material are not necessarily the same; these field values depend upon the magnetization process. Several field-related parameters are used to identify the major hysteresis loop of a material: the saturation field, remanent coercivity, critical field, average critical field, coercivity, median coercivity, and intrinsic coercivity. The parameters vary with changes in the magnetization process, which usually is assumed to be quasi-static. If the process is not quasi-static; i.e., it is faster or slower, the results of the process will change, and the field parameters will be different.