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Diamonds Key To Quantum Computing

Posted by Soulskill on from the supercomputer-in-the-rough dept.

I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "Scientists P. Neumann, N. Mizuochi & co. have advanced quantum computing by finding a new method to get two-way and three-way, high quality quantum correlations that persist for hundreds or thousands of microseconds, even at room temperature. Their paper (subscription required) describes how they manipulated electrons from nitrogen vacancies in diamond using microwaves to entangle adjacent carbon-13 nuclei. Even better, this builds on previous results which indicate that diamonds with nitrogen impurities may be the key to creating useful quantum computing devices. The article provides a good description of what nitrogen vacancies are and why they prove useful."

5 of 92 comments (clear)

  1. Re:How nice.... by Majik+Sheff · · Score: 5, Informative

    No, actually nitrogen impurities are the one thing keeping synthetic diamonds out of the jewelry market right now. Nitrogen turns diamonds a canary yellow, which can be considered desirable in fancy grades but is hardly desirable in the fiery rock category. Info here:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synthetic_diamond

    --
    Women are like electronics: you don't know how damaged they are until you try to turn them on.
  2. Re:How nice.... by Majik+Sheff · · Score: 4, Informative

    Oops, better picture here:

    http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.09/diamond.html

    --
    Women are like electronics: you don't know how damaged they are until you try to turn them on.
  3. Re:Why diamonds? by $RANDOMLUSER · · Score: 4, Informative
    From TFA:

    Carbon, the element which forms diamond, has four electrons available for bonding. To form diamond, the carbon atoms form a tetrahedral shape, where each carbon has four carbon neighbors, positioned evenly around the central atom. These atoms then share electrons, forming a very strong bond. If nitrogen is added during the formation of diamond, then some of the carbon positions will be taken by nitrogen. However, nitrogen has only three electrons available for bonding. Thus, every nitrogen atom is associated with a missing atom ^W electron in the tetrahedral. This imbalance leads to a very interesting situation, in which each vacancy is associated with a pair of electrons. In this case, the hardness of diamond is helpful because the atomic cores cannot move much, which helps preserve the quantum state of the electrons and nucleus. These robust quantum states are a necessary first step towards obtaining quantum computation.
    Forehead whapping correction mine.

    The whole notion isn't that different from doped silicon.
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    No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
  4. Re:Lab Made Diamonds by hkmarks · · Score: 4, Informative

    Natural diamonds are much more abundant than they'd have you believe. There's an artificial scarcity. Large, high quality diamonds are pretty rare, but there are plenty of small ones (enough to make tools out of them, and enough that diamond jewelery has next to no resale value.) The markup on new diamonds is huge and the supply chain is narrow.

    Anyhow, isn't this whole thing the plot of the First Wave episode "The Apostles"? Except possibly without aliens? And probably fewer biker gangs?

  5. Re:Lab Made Diamonds by De+Lemming · · Score: 5, Informative
    Some more info: