Breakthrough discovery might see diamonds utilized in knowledge centres and laser manufacturing.
There’s an outdated saying about women and diamonds. It most likely hasn’t aged effectively. A extra acceptable saying in 2026 is likely to be that diamonds are a quantum scientist’s greatest good friend—significantly because of a discovery on the College of Calgary.
In early December of 2025, researchers on the College of Calgary’s Quantum Nanophotonics Lab printed a paper outlining a discovery into the basic properties of diamonds and their relation to make use of in quantum nanophotonics—mainly, tiny buildings and the physics of how they work together with gentle.
The paper outlines how researchers had been capable of reveal what’s often known as second-harmonic era—or the conversion of 1 color of sunshine to a different by way of adjustments to the frequency and size of a lightwave—in diamonds. Previous to this discovery, diamonds had been broadly believed to be too symmetrical of their crystalline construction to realize such optical transformation.
“Not solely are we type of breaking the foundations by seeing these results, however we’ve completed so in a means the place we will management how strongly we’re breaking the foundations.”
Dr. Paul Barclay,
College of Calgary
“Diamond just isn’t historically a fabric that might be suitable with the results we’re seeing in our paper,” Dr. Paul Barclay, a professor with the college’s Division of Physics and Astronomy and lead of the Quantum Nanophotonics Lab, informed BetaKit in an interview. “There’s a complete class of purposes referring to wavelength conversion that aren’t potential in diamond for causes which are basic and associated to the character of the diamond crystal. So, not solely are we type of breaking the foundations by seeing these results, however we’ve completed so in a means the place we will management how strongly we’re breaking the foundations.”
By leveraging tiny defects within the crystal construction of diamonds, the analysis workforce was capable of circumvent pre-existing limitations, permitting for brand spanking new diamond makes use of within the area of quantum nanophotonics.
“Diamond is superb at dealing with loads of laser energy—you may have loads of energy coming in with out breaking materials,” stated Sigurd Flågan, a postdoctoral scholar with the lab who led the experiments main as much as this discovery.
“So what we will do with our discovery now’s, in precept, create an optical change, laser, or modulator that may deal with much more energy than is at present achievable,” Flågan added.
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Sensible examples, Flågan stated, would possibly embrace use instances in issues like knowledge centres, high-powered laser fabrication, and optical processing.
Whereas the lab’s findings had been printed in December, Flågan stated analysis has been ongoing for a number of years, with researchers first observing the phenomenon three years in the past.
“These experiments befell on the finish of 2023 and carried into 2024. Nonetheless, we didn’t have the ultimate instinct and mannequin of what was taking place till the start of 2025,” Flågan stated.
BetaKit’s Prairies reporting is funded partly by YEGAF, a not-for-profit devoted to amplifying enterprise tales in Alberta.
Characteristic picture courtesy Unsplash. Picture by Bas van den Eijkhof.
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