Current-induced viscoelastic topological unwinding of metastable skyrmion strings

Fumitaka Kagawa (), Hiroshi Oike, Wataru Koshibae, Akiko Kikkawa, Yoshihiro Okamura, Yasujiro Taguchi, Naoto Nagaosa and Yoshinori Tokura
Additional contact information
Fumitaka Kagawa: RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science (CEMS)
Hiroshi Oike: RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science (CEMS)
Wataru Koshibae: RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science (CEMS)
Akiko Kikkawa: RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science (CEMS)
Yoshihiro Okamura: The University of Tokyo
Yasujiro Taguchi: RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science (CEMS)
Naoto Nagaosa: RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science (CEMS)
Yoshinori Tokura: RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science (CEMS)

Nature Communications, 2017, vol. 8, issue 1, 1-8

Abstract: 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, 10–1000 μm. 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 3–5 × 106 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.

Date: 2017
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-017-01353-2 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:8:y:2017:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-017-01353-2

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-017-01353-2

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().