Fig. 3

(a–e) The experimental XMCD field sweep data, where the field was swept in two directions. 50 mT FC, 0 mT image, − 140 mT \(\rightarrow\) 140 mT in 10 mT increments (f–j) Simulations of the system without DMI, are similar to the experimental observations and show that the topological charge is mostly conserved throughout the field sweep. Shown here is the z-component of the magnetisation. The field of view for each XMCD and simulation image is 3 \(\times\) 3 \(\upmu \text {m}^{2}\).