biostudies-literatureUnknown8(1)Kagawa FIn 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 pinNature communications1332https://www.ebi.ac.uk/biostudies/studies/S-EPMC5673897biostudies-literatureCurrent-induced viscoelastic topological unwinding of metastable skyrmion strings.PMC5673897Taguchi YKoshibae WOike HKagawa FKikkawa AOkamura YNagaosa NTokura YfalseCurrent-induced viscoelastic topological unwinding of metastable skyrmion strings.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 pin2017-01-01T00:00:00Z2017 Nov2025-04-04T21:22:55.592Z2019-03-27T03:01:01ZS-EPMC56738972910947410.1038/s41467-017-01353-2