Japanese researchers have succeeded in obtaining slices of diamond only a few centimeters in diameter, whose very high degree of purity could allow them to store an overwhelming amount of data.
Quantum storage media
Known as “ nitrogen-vacancy center a particular defect in diamond’s structure can be exploited to store data in the form of superconducting quantum bits (qubits), making this crystal one of the most promising materials for practical quantum computing systems.
Since too much nitrogen can compromise the integrity and reduce the amount of data that can be stored on such media, a compromise has been necessary until now: to create diamond wafers with a high degree of purity but s proving too small to be useful for data storage, or larger slices with lower reliability.
Recent work by researchers at thesaga university have led to the development of a completely new manufacturing process making it possible to obtain ultra-pure diamond wafers (with a nitrogen concentration of less than three parts per billion) whose size is suitable for such use.
A stepped substrate
Diamond wafers are usually obtained by growing crystals on a flat substrate. However, the high stresses applied to the crystal can crack it, thus degrading its quality. In order to avoid this scenario, the team used a stair-shaped surface, distributing the stress horizontally.
Using such an approach enabled them to obtain ultra-pure diamond wafers 5 cm in diameter, capable of storing the equivalent of a billion Blu ray. A single-layer Blu-ray disc that can hold up to 25 GB of data, the ” Kenzan Diamonds could theoretically store up to 25 exabytes. This corresponds, according to the team, to all the mobile data distributed in the world in one day.
Currently refining the manufacturing process in order to double the diameter of the inserts (which would reach 10 centimeters), the team estimates that its technology could arrive on the market during 2023.
[related_posts_by_tax taxonomies=”post_tag”]
The post Tiny diamond pads capable of storing the equivalent of a billion Blu-rays appeared first on Gamingsym.