Current-induced viscoelastic topological unwinding of metastable skyrmion strings
arXiv:1711.03286 · doi:10.1038/s41467-017-01353-2
Abstract
In the MnSi bulk chiral magnet, magnetic skyrmion strings of 17 nm in diameter appear in the form of a lattice, penetrating the sample thickness, 10-1,000 um. Although such a bundle of skyrmion strings may exhibit complex soft-matter-like dynamics when starting to move under the influence of a random pinning potential, the details remain highly elusive. Here, we show that a metastable skyrmion-string lattice is subject to topological unwinding under the application of pulsed currents of 3-5x106 A m-2 rather than being transported, as evidenced by measurements of the topological Hall effect. The critical current density above which the topological unwinding occurs is larger for a shorter pulse width, reminiscent of the viscoelastic characteristics accompanying the pinning-creep transition observed in domain-wall motion. Numerical simulations reveal that current-induced depinning of already segmented skyrmion strings initiates the topological unwinding. Thus, the skyrmion-string length is an element to consider when studying current-induced motion.
arXiv comment33 pages, 13 figures (including Supplementary Materials)
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Cited by in corpus (25)
- Beyond skyrmions: Review and perspectives of alternative magnetic quasiparticles
- Statics and Dynamics of Skyrmions Interacting with Pinning: A Review
- Real-space imaging of confined magnetic skyrmion tubes
- Chiral Magnetic Skyrmions with Arbitrary Topological Charge ("skyrmionic sacks")
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- Mechanisms of skyrmion collapse revealed by sub-nm maps of the transition rate
- Increased lifetime of metastable skyrmions by doping
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- Measuring the Formation Energy Barrier of Skyrmions in Zinc Substituted CuOSeO
- Bifurcation of a Topological Skyrmion String
- Skyrmion Alignment and Pinning Effects in a Disordered Multi-Phase Skyrmion Material Co8Zn8Mn4
- Pinning of Helimagnetic Phase Transitions in Zn-Substituted Skyrmion Host CuOSeO
- Thermal Stability of Skyrmion Tubes in Nanostructured Cuboids
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