This Diamond Could Store As Much Data As 1 Billion Blu-ray Discs
Adamant Namiki Precision Jewel Co. has created a diamond wafer that, according to the company, could make its way into a variety of quantum computing projects.
"A 2-inch diamond wafer theoretically enables enough quantum memory to record 1 billion Blu-ray discs," Adamant Namiki says. "This is equivalent to all the mobile data distributed in the world in one day." The purity of the diamonds produced using this process could allow the material to be used in quantum computers, quantum memory, and quantum sensing devices.
Adamant Namiki collaborated with Saga University to develop this new diamond creation method. The company says it originally produced a diamond wafer of this size in September 2021, but that iteration of the process introduced too many impurities for the resulting diamond to be useful in quantum computers, so it's spent the last few months investigating that problem.
The previous method reportedly left several parts per million (ppm) of nitrogen in the diamond. This new method, which Adamant Namiki says allows it to "grow stress-free, high quality, large diameter diamond substrate for stable production," is said to leave just 3 parts per billion (ppb) in the resulting diamond. Greater purity leads to greater potential for quantum computing.
The company says that diamonds with just 3ppb of nitrogen were previously limited to 4mm x 4mm cubes. But it's not content with creating this significantly larger diamond. Adamant Namiki says it's "now tackling the challenge of further increasing the wafer size, with four-inch diameter as the next stage," although it hasn't provided an estimate for how long that might take.
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