Two researchers at City College of New York, Siddharth Dhomkar and Jacob Henshaw have proposed using diamonds to store digital data, saying that this has the potential to transform the capacities of hard disk drives and other storage devices, enhancing them about 100 times more than what is possible under the current technology.

In a recently published research article, Dhomkar and Henshaw have proposed to break away from the traditional two-dimensional approach to storing data and move to a multi-dimensional or 3D method, using what are till now referred to as ‘defects’ in diamonds.

Their method is based on the fact that while diamonds are usually well-ordered arrays of carbon atoms, the stones often have a break in the three dimensional lattice structure where one carbon atom is missing, or a nitrogen atom takes its place. When both these occur together scientists term it as the creation of a nitrogen vacancy, or NV, which has the properties that make diamonds an ideal platform for enhanced digital memory.

The researchers write that while NVs “have a tendency to trap electrons, the electron can also be forced out of the defect by a laser pulse”. Using laser pulses of different durations in a single region, Dhomkar and Henshaw write that the number of charged NV centers can be controlled and consequently encoded with multiple bits of information. Thus, each NV can be treated as a nanoscopic 'bit' – for those with an extra electron, the bit is a one, for those without it, the bit is a zero.

They demonstrated that, “This electron yes/no, on/off, one/zero property opens the door for turning the NV centre’s charge state into the basis for using diamonds as a long-term storage medium.”

The researchers are also exploring certain “advanced protocols” by which the storage capacity of a diamond would vastly surpass what existing technologies can achieve.

Dhomkar and Henshaw used lab-grown synthetic diamonds in their research, but have stated that natural diamonds also have the potential to be used for data storage.

Pic caption: A model of a diamond lattice indicating the Nitrogen Vacancy centre (courtesy: Wikipedia)