This Two-Inch Diamond Disc Could Hold a Staggering Billion Blu-Ray’s Worth of Data

Don’t toss your arduous drives, SSDs, and RAIDs simply but, however an organization with an experience in making precision jewel-based industrial tools has partnered with researchers from Japan’s Saga University to create a diamond wafer that’s each pure sufficient and enormous sufficient to be used in quantum computing applications, together with reminiscence with a mind-blowing storage capability.

As we marvel at holding 4TB of knowledge within the palm of our arms, there are storage breakthroughs on the distant horizon that make the tiny bumps in capability we see 12 months over 12 months look like trivial developments. Quantum computing continues to be in its infancy, and doubtlessly even nonetheless within the womb, nevertheless it holds an unbelievable quantity of promise in terms of computing energy (you may learn our complete quantum computing explainer right here) which applies to storage too. But there are a number of hurdles to beat, together with discovering the precise supplies to construct these methods from.

Diamond holds a number of potential as a storage medium for quantum computing due to a structural defect often known as a nitrogen-vacancy heart that can be utilized to retailer knowledge as qubits (quick for quantum bit) at room temperature, however the course of used to fabricate diamonds in a lab depends on nitrogen, and an excessive amount of nitrogen within the remaining product can hinder its potential to reliably retailer qubits. In order for diamonds for use in quantum computing functions, they must be extremely pure, with a nitrogen focus of lower than three elements per billion. To date, diamond wafers with that degree of purity have been restricted to only four-millimeters in measurement, making them too small for sensible functions.

But the Adamant Namiki Precision Jewelery Company, working with researchers from Saga University, have developed a brand new manufacturing course of that may produce diamond wafers which are two-inches in measurement, with a nitrogen purity that’s lower than three PPB. The trick was to create a sapphire substrate—the floor materials that diamond wafers are grown on—with a stepped construction that was tilted in order that because the diamond crystals develop, they unfold out laterally. This reduces stresses and cracking that may degrade high quality. Nitrogen gasoline is used to speed up the crystal’s progress charge, however this new method minimizes the quantity of nitrogen wanted, bettering the purity of the ultimate diamond wafer.

Using quantum reminiscence strategies, it’s estimated {that a} two-inch diamond wafer can have sufficient knowledge density to retailer the equal of 1 billion Blu-Ray discs value of knowledge, or roughly 25 exabytes. That’s staggering, and will theoretically remedy the world’s knowledge storage wants, however regardless of the Adamant Namiki Precision Jewelery Co. planning to commercialize this new manufacturing approach as early as subsequent 12 months, it will likely be fairly some time earlier than you may order a brand new smartphone with 25 exabytes of knowledge onboard.