Deformation-Assisted Skyrmion Formation and Reorganization under Pulsed Currents.

Abstract

Topological skyrmions can be driven by ultralow electric currents, attracting significant interest for nonvolatile magnetic memory and spintronic devices. However, how electrical current reshapes skyrmions and reorganizes their collective order remains much less explored, despite its importance for geometry-controlled emergent phenomena and functionality. Here we show that electric-current pulses drive the deformation of oriented helical stripes, yielding elongated skyrmionic textures and ultimately assembling a skyrmion lattice in the chiral magnet Co₈Zn₁₀Mn₂ at room temperature. We further capture pronounced intermediate distortions, including elongated and comet-like textures with tail-like extensions, indicating highly nonuniform deformation and local texture inhomogeneity during stripe-to-skyrmion conversion. Beyond nucleation, successive pulses drive the deformation, displacement, and reorganization of skyrmion clusters, yielding a reordered skyrmion assembly. Micromagnetic simulations reproduce the intermediate morphologies and deformation pathways. Our results establish deformation-assisted dynamics as a real-space route by which pulsed currents generate and reorganize skyrmions, linking pinning-mediated deformation to the emergence and evolution of skyrmion order.