Notes

Hurdles in importing diamonds pose a quantum block to research ambition

Contact Counsellor

Last Updated10/07/2024

The Customs Department’s decision on who can and cannot import diamonds is taking some of the lustre off the National Quantum Mission (NQM)

National Quantum Mission (NQM), a ₹6,000-crore initiative, which may help India take the lead in the emerging field of quantum technologies.
Quantum technology is a broad term applicable to multiple avenues of research.
It hinges on being able to exploit the “quantum-mechanical” properties of matter inside the atom and develop entirely new kinds of computers, sensors and encryption systems

While gemologists may be concerned with the cut, clarity, colour and carats of diamonds, quantum researchers are interested in their “defects”.
It is the unique arrangement of carbon atoms in a diamond which gives it the properties of hardness, electrical conductivity and manipulation of light.
However, the atomic structure of some diamonds sometimes have two missing carbon atoms.
They are substituted by a nitrogen atom as well as a hole or what is called a nitrogen-vacancy centre.
These “centres’ are sensitive to the slightest variations in magnetic fields and thereby open vistas of investigation.
An electron at such a centre can be individually tweaked and made to behave like a qubit.
Qubits analogous to the bits and bytes of classical computers are the logic states of quantum computers and in theory allow calculations, beyond the capacity of existing supercomputers, to be done in a trice.
Researchers can also use lasers at room temperatures to manipulate these centres.
However, unlike the diamonds in jewellery shops, scientists prefer their diamonds grown in a lab, customised with the ‘defects’ of their choice.
The Science and Technology Ministry has announced plans to make quantum computers of 50 to 1,000 qubits by the decade-end.
But, quantum computers globally are far from being useful devices because maintaining electrons like in the ‘defect diamonds’ in their qubit-like states is a daunting challenge.