The light blue color of Hope Diamond is caused by small impurities in its crystal structure. Similar diamond impurities also offer hope to scientists looking (Comprehensive solutions for quantum sensing materials) for materials that can be used for quantum calculations and quantum imaging.
In a new study by the US Department of Energy (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory, the researchers produced extremely thin membranes made of pure diamond. However, at some points in the crystal structure of the membrane, the group replaces carbon atoms with other atoms, especially nitrogen. These defects connect neighboring atomic cavities – areas where the atom is missing – create unusual quantum systems known as “color centers”. Such color centers are sites for storing and processing quantum information.
This work was primarily supported by the DOE Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Materials Sciences, and Engineering with the support of Q-NEXT, the National Research Center for Quantum Information Science DOE led by Argonne.
Equipped with an inexpensive and fast way to produce diamond membranes with strong color centers, scientists from Argonne hope to build an elegant assembly line (Comprehensive solutions for quantum sensing materials) for the production of multiple membranes for quantum experiments around the world.
The ability to grow membranes maybe a ticket to improved collaboration between various quantum information science labs, said University of Chicago graduate student Xinghan Guo, lead author of the study.
“We hope it will eventually allow us to be the single point of contact for quantum imaging materials,” Guo said. “Diamond defects are important to us because they can be used for quantum applications,” said Nazar Delegan, a scientist at Argonne’s Materials Science and Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering at the University of Chicago and a Q-NEXT employee. “The development of these membranes allows us to integrate these defects into other systems and enable new experimental configurations.”
Diamond is mechanically hard, chemically strong, and often expensive – in other words, it is a kind of scientific nightmare that is notoriously difficult to produce and combine. At the same time, the unique structure of the diamond makes it a good host for color centers that can store quantum information for a long time, Guo said.
“With conventional diamond as a substrate, it’s much harder to work with,” he said. “Our membranes are thinner and easier to use for many experiments.”
The new diamond material developed by researchers offers even higher quality crystals and surfaces, which allows greater control over the adhesion of colored centers. “You can peel the membrane and apply it to multiple substrates, even place it on a silicon wafer. It’s a cheap, flexible, and fast way to work with colored centers without having to work directly with regular diamonds,” Guo said.
“Because we can control and maintain the quantum properties of individual defects in these very thin materials, it makes this platform promising as a basis for quantum technology,” Delegan said.
An article based on a study entitled “Seed and transferable diamond membranes for Integrated quantum technologies” appeared in the online edition of Nano Letters on December 13, 2021. In addition to Delegan and Guo, other study authors were Jonathan Karsch, Zixi Li, Tinale Liu, Robert Shreiner, Amy Butcher, David Awschalom, F. Joseph Heremans ug Alexander A. High.
