Novel Processing for Diamond Quantum Technologies

Quantum technologies take advantage of the strange world of quantum mechanics where, for example, objects can exist in two places at once. This world typically occurs on the atomic level at low temperatures which has meant that technologies that exploit these properties have been challenging to manufacture. Recent work has demonstrated that the quantum mechanical properties of impurities that have been added to a synthetic diamond can be controlled simply by shining light on the diamond and measuring light that is emitted, even at room temperature. These ‘quantum defects ‘ have the potential to be used for a range of applications such as measuring the magnetic fields on the nanoscale, which may revolutionise biology, or forming a quantum computer which has the potential to solve problems no current computer can. Critical to the development of these technologies is to have the impurities close to the surface of the diamond but retaining their unique quantum properties. This projects objective is develop a low damage diamond polishing technique which is compatible with these quantum defects retaining their properties within 50 nm of the surface.