Hidden within the bulk of a diamond are tiny flaws — places where a carbon atom is replaced by nitrogen, with a vacancy gaping nearby. These defects, like beacons, can store and transmit quantum information. But around them rages a magnetic storm: the nuclei of atoms in the crystal jostle, creating interference. The signal drowns in the noise.
The authors of the study found a way to cut through this chaos. They propose irradiating the defect electrons with a powerful microwave field. It's like two people in a noisy workshop wearing headphones playing the same rhythm. Suddenly, the interference stops being disruptive, and a thread of connection stretches between nitrogen nuclei sitting in different defects. The interaction goes through the magnetic forces of the electrons, but now it's shielded from the trembling of the environment.
Such a bridge between two atomic "islets" is a building block for future quantum machines. Unlike many schemes that require absolute cold and vacuum, this approach works right in solid diamond at room temperature. That means processors won't have to be hidden in cryogenic towers.
Nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond are so stable that they can be used as ultra-sensitive magnetic field sensors: they can detect the field of a single electron from tens of nanometers away.
In Neal Stephenson's novel "The Diamond Age," diamonds become the foundation of all future computing — a not-too-distant echo of real quantum experiments with diamond defects.