Scientists in Japan have developed a new way for making 2″ (5cm) wafers of synthetic diamond that could be used for quantum data storage. The ultra-high purity of this grown diamond allows it to store the equivalent of one billion Blu-Ray discs.

Diamond is one of the most promising materials for practical quantum computing systems and memory. It has a particular defect in the crystal, known as a nitrogen-vacancy center, that can be used to store data in the form of superconducting quantum bits (qubits). 

In order to create these large diamond wafers a new process was developed to prevent them from cracking as they grow to these large sizes. If the diamond wafers are grown on a substrate surface shaped like steps, the strains that cause the wafers to crack are spread horizontally preventing cracking and allowing for the creation of these large, high purity wafers.

The development teams hope to commercialize these diamond wafers as early as 2023, and are already working towards doubling the diameter to 4″ (10cm).

So who knows the future? Maybe one day we will all just download our 4K movie files for playback at current or even greater Blu-ray bit rates, storing them ALL in our Diamond Quantum Players. 

Sources: Saga University, Adamant Namiki