Scientists discover ‘hidden waves’ in diamond that could revolutionize quantum computing

CLEVELAND — A team of international researchers has just uncovered something remarkable about one of Earth’s most fascinating materials: diamond. By adding small amounts of a common element called boron to diamond, a process called “doping,” they’ve created a material that behaves in ways that could revolutionize everything from medical sensors to quantum computers.

While researchers have known for some time that boron-doped diamond (BDD) can conduct electricity like a metal, this new study reveals something unexpected: it can support special waves of electronic activity. These waves, known as intervalence plasmons, represent a completely new way that diamond can interact with and control light and electricity at microscopic scales.

The idea of manipulating light and electricity might sound modern, but humans have actually been doing it for centuries without realizing it. Consider the brilliant reds and yellows in medieval stained-glass windows; those colors come from tiny metal particles in the glass that create similar wave-like effects when sunlight hits them. What makes this discovery in diamond special is that scientists now have the potential to offer better control and more possibilities for advanced technologies.

To understand how this works, imagine a diamond as a perfectly organized crystal made of carbon atoms. When scientists add boron, which has one less electron than carbon, it creates periodic “holes” in this otherwise perfect arrangement. These holes allow electricity to flow through the diamond while keeping it transparent, though with a distinctive blue tint (this is actually the same reason why the famous Hope Diamond has its characteristic blue color).

“Diamond continues to shine, both literally and as a beacon for scientific and technological innovation,” says Giuseppe Strangi, professor of physics at Case Western Reserve, in a statement. “As we step further into the era of quantum computing and communication, discoveries like this bring us closer to harnessing the full potential of materials at their most fundamental level.”

To study these new electronic behaviors, the research team used a remarkable array of specialized instruments that can examine materials at scales thousands of times smaller than a human hair. They employed advanced microscopes that can detect how electrons move within materials and special techniques that reveal how materials interact with infrared light. Think of it like having super-powered eyes that can see not just what something looks like, but how its atoms and electrons behave.

So what makes diamond so special compared to other materials? It’s incredibly hard, conducts heat better than any other natural material, and is biologically compatible, meaning it doesn’t react with or harm living tissues. This combination of properties, along with these newly discovered electronic behaviors, could make it ideal for applications where other materials fall short.

“Understanding how doping affects the optical response of semiconductors like diamond changes our understanding of these materials,” explains Mohan Sankaran, professor of nuclear, plasma and radiological engineering at Illinois Grainger College of Engineering. The potential applications range from improved medical imaging devices to high-sensitivity biochips, molecular sensors, improved solar cells, and advanced quantum computers.

This breakthrough, published in Nature Communications, builds on a rich history of diamond research. In 1968, John Angus at Case Western Reserve University pioneered techniques for synthesizing diamonds at low pressure and was the first to report that adding boron could make diamond conduct electricity. More than fifty years later, this new discovery continues to reveal diamond’s remarkable potential for future technologies.