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Growing Diamonds for Better Information Security

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the homegrown-security dept.

hip2b2 writes "NetworkWorld is running an article that describes how a University of Melbourne research group is developing technology to make fiber optics communications more secure. The technology is based on Quantum Cryptography principles and requires than absolutely only one photon gets sent at any given time. Today, fiber optic systems do not send one photon at a time. They only approximate it. This makes current systems unsuitable for their secure communications technology. Therefore, the group uses artificially grown diamonds to achieve this."

5 of 113 comments (clear)

  1. Vaporware that is real by dbIII · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Grown diamonds are literally vaporware - but chemical vapor deposition is the interesting and relatively cheap way to do it. The old cheap way to make artificial diamonds was to blow things up (DuPont method), but the optical properties were no good.

    1. Re:Vaporware that is real by Khyber · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Not all grown diamonds are vaporware in the literal sense. - Don't remember which university it was but they actully turned peanut butter into a diamond using a relatively easy process. Charbroil the hell out peanut butter until it's been reduced to carbon ash, grind the carbon ash up to fine dust, apply immense amounts of heat and high-level atmospheric pressures to simulate the pressure of large amounts of land - wait a while. You now have a diamond - it's optical quality was HORRIBLE (horrible is actually a poor term - imagine smoky quartz, then inject a fat bong hit of smoke nito it - that was how horrible the optical quality was) but its quite useful for industrial purposes (concrete cutting saw blades, for an immediate example) diamonds made from PB. I didn't believe it myself, but then again I've used heat and pressure in geology class to make cobalt crystals from materials that contain cobalt, so in all honesty I shouldn't be too surprised.

      --
      Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
  2. Re:They wont like this... by BitchKapoor · · Score: 3, Interesting

    DeBeers will give you all sorts of fud saying that they will eventually have a process for telling the difference between the two, but they won't. Ever.

    Actually, they do: excavated diamonds have more lattice defects and impurities than manufactured diamonds.

  3. Re:They wont like this... by flobberchops · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Then "manufacture" these impurities in then. Make this cartel suffer as they have caused those they pillage to suffer. Just like the oil industry in some countries.

  4. Re:They wont like this... by bmo · · Score: 3, Interesting

    "Actually, they do: excavated diamonds have more lattice defects and impurities than manufactured diamonds."

    And that's what scares the diamond dealers the most. The most expensive diamonds are the ones that are so-called perfect. High quality manufactured diamonds could easily bring down the inflated value of the very top end diamonds.

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    BMO