At left, natural diamonds glow under ultraviolet light owing to their various nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers. At right, a schematic depicting the diamond anvils in action, with NV centers in the bottom anvil. The NV sensors glow a brilliant shade of red when excited with laser light. By probing the brightness of this fluorescence, the researchers were able to see how the sensors responded to small changes in their environment. (Credits: Norman Yao/Berkeley Lab; Ella Marushchenko)
Scientists at Berkeley Lab convert diamonds' atomic flaws into atomic sensors with front-row seats to a quantum world of materials under extreme pressure. S ince their invention more than 60 years ago, diamond anvil cells have made it possible for scientists to recreate extreme phenomena - such as the crushing pressures deep inside the Earth's mantle - or to enable chemical reactions that can only be triggered by intense pressure, all within the confines of a laboratory apparatus that you can safely hold in the palm of your hand. To develop new, high-performance materials, scientists need to understand how useful properties, such as magnetism and strength, change under such harsh conditions. But often, measuring these properties with enough sensitivity requires a sensor that can withstand the crushing forces inside a diamond anvil cell. Since 2018, scientists at the Center for Novel Pathways to Quantum Coherence in Materials (NPQC) , an Energy Frontier Research Center led by the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), have sought to understand how the properties of electronic and optical materials can be harnessed to develop ultrasensitive sensors capable of measuring electric and magnetic fields. Now, a team of scientists led by Berkeley Lab and UC Berkeley, with support from the NPQC, have come up with a clever solution: By turning natural atomic flaws inside the diamond anvils into tiny quantum sensors, the scientists have developed a tool that opens the door to a wide range of experiments inaccessible to conventional sensors.
TO READ THIS ARTICLE, CREATE YOUR ACCOUNT
And extend your reading, free of charge and with no commitment.
