LAUSR

Significance Magnetic skyrmions have long been heralded as candidates for information carriers in future electronic devices due to their topological protection and low-energy manipulation. It is a common belief that skyrmions are rigid under applied currents, and the majority of skyrmionics publications and proposed applications using skyrmion motion rely on this assumption. We found that skyrmions deform and expand under an applied current with surprising severity even with small currents, highlighting their robust nature. This has a tremendous impact on the skyrmionics and spintronics field, and various ideas need to be reevaluated, whereas other unconventional fields such as reservoir computing rely on such a property and will certainly use these findings to guide a plethora of follow-up studies.