We observe strong signatures of spin flips in quantum rings exposed to external magnetic fields in the Coulomb blockade regime. The signatures appear as a pattern of lines corresponding to local reduction of conductance, and they cover a large range of magnetic fields and number of electrons. The sequence of lines, as well as other features in the conductance, can be captured by many-electron calculations within density-functional theory. The calculations show that most lines in the pattern correspond to sequential spin flips between filling factors 2 and 1. We believe that the ability to probe individual spin flips provides an important step toward precise spin control in quantum ring devices. © 2011 American Physical Society.
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