World’s first widely available quantum diamond grade wins R&D category
Element Six (E6), part of the De Beers Group, has been named as an E&T Innovation Award winner in the R&D category for its quantum grade chemical vapour deposition (CVD) diamond, DNV B1™.
The annual awards recognise cutting edge innovations across the breadth of science, engineering and technology which hold the potential to make dramatic improvements to society. Launched in 2020, DNV B1TM is the world’s first commercially available, general purpose CVD quantum diamond grade, aimed at lowering diamond’s adoption barrier in quantum technology research. It has enabled both new and established groups in industry and academia to accelerate the development and commercialisation of innovative quantum technologies. These advancements are set to have ground-breaking applications with real-world benefits, such as improvements in medical diagnostics and positional navigation.
Part of Element Six’s DNVTM Series, DNV B1 TM was also named a finalist in the TechForGood category, concluding a successful year for the product, which had also received the prestigious SPIE Prism Award for the Quantum category in March 2021.
Building on the company’s extensive experience and a unique, patented process to develop bespoke CVD diamond materials, DNV B1™ is an ideal starting solution for those interested in researching nitrogen-vacancy (NV) ensembles for quantum demonstrations, masers, detection of RF radiation, gyroscopes and sensing.
The material was developed to provide a baseline solution for emerging diamond applications that require ensembles of NV centres. Its guaranteed performance, reproducibility and ability to provide a readout at room temperature enable users to develop the next generation quantum of technologies.
Dr Matthew Markham, Principal Research Scientist at Element Six, said: “This award is built upon over a decade of pioneering research and collaboration between our outstanding teams at Element Six and our academic and commercial network. Together, we are working to unlock the revolutionary potential of NV diamond for quantum applications. The DNV™ Series makes this incredible material commercially available to an even broader range of users in industry and academia, lowering the barriers to research and accelerating the commercial development of quantum technologies.”
DNV-B1TM was the first solution in Element Six’s DNV™ Series. In September 2021, the company launched DNV B14TM. With more than a 10-fold increase in NV density compared to DNV B1™, DNV B14™ gives developers a new material choice for their needs, and is an ideal solution for a range of technologies, such as ensemble NV-based vector magnetometry and room-temperature masers.
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