PURIFIED DIAMOND CHIP STORES DATA FROM A BILLION BLU-RAY DISKS

Engineers at Japan’s Saga University have revolutionized diamond data storage.

Diamonds are important materials in quantum computing, the evolving technology that amplifies computing power and speed by orders of magnitude, which we have highlighted previously in “Computer Completes Billion-Year Task in Three Minutes” (15 Dec 2020) and “Quantum Computing Comes to the Desktop” (19 Oct 2021), among other articles.

Diamonds are useful as storage media because they have something called nitrogen-vacancy centers, spots where data can be held in the form of quantum bits (qubits), which are charged atomic particles.

However, diamonds often have too much nitrogen in their make-up to store a lot of data in a small space. Engineers have to synthesize and purify big diamonds—costly in money and in physical space—to store data, or make smaller diamonds able to store only relatively small amounts of data compared to the amount a quantum computer can handle.

Saga’s researchers found a way to synthesize diamonds that purifies them and combines the best of both: small size and massive storage capacity.

It was a relatively simple change.

Normally, diamonds for quantum computing are grown on a flat surface, which can cause the crystals to crack, creating impurities.

To make their diamonds, the Saga team created a stairstep-like substrate that spread any strain horizontally and vertically, which halts the cracking. 

The result: bigger diamonds that the developers claim to be the purest diamonds ever manufactured.

By reducing the strain and preventing cracking, the group also could make the diamond wafers as large as about two inches across. 

The size and purity enables the new disk to store 25 exabytes of data, which is equivalent to the amount of data that could be stored on a billion single-layer Blu-Ray discs, the engineers have calculated.

The new diamond wafers will be marketed next year, the developers say.

Meanwhile, they’re working to double their disks’ diameter to four inches.

TRENDPOST: Although one or two companies are offering commercial quantum computers, it will be years, and perhaps decades, before the technology is widespread.

Eventually, however, quantum computing will allow each of us to have the equivalent of today’s best supercomputer on our desktops. Now, thanks to Saga’s breakthrough, our personal quantum computes will be able to store universes of data in a memory bank the size and shape of a pocket watch.

Saga University’s new diamond data storage disk, compared to a current diamond storage wafer (left).

Credit: Saga University