A research team led by University of Chicago scientists have discovered a new methodology to document quantum mechanical behavior of electrons contained in the flaws of diamonds. The scientists blasted a region of a diamond that contained a nitrogen atom with repeated, quick pulses of a laser beam, which enabled the team to control the quantum state of the area as well as observe the electron state of a single electron.

“These defects have garnered great interest over the past decade, providing a test-bed system for developing semiconductor quantum bits as well as nanoscale sensors,” said team leader David Awschalom, the Liew Family Professor of Molecular Engineering at University of Chicago in a statement. “Here, we were able to harness light to completely control the quantum state of this defect at extremely high speeds.”

The discovery has vast implications for the holy grail of computer science: quantum computing. Traditionally, computing has been restricted to a binary system, where information can be either classified as a ‘yes’ or ‘no’, or 0 and 1. However, such rigid aspects of computing neglect the fact that information is usually that in a more complex, quantum state.

“It’s quite a versatile technique, providing a full picture of the excited state of the quantum defect,” said F. Joseph Heremans, a University of Chicago postdoctoral scholar, and co-lead author on the paper, in a statement. “Previous work on the nitrogen-vacancy center has hinted at some of these processes, but here, simply through the application of these ultrafast pulses, we get a much richer understanding of this quantum beast.”

The development of quantum computing technologies would allow computers to process new information at blazing speed. Such technologies piqued the interest of military departments (the Air Force provided a portion of funding for this study) for the potential applications, such as code breaking. Scientists also are smitten with the potential to use quantum computing to research and perform complex calculations in a fraction of the time.

“You only have to be able to use light to transfer an electron between a ground state and an excited state,” said Awschalom.

he team researched a quantum mechanical property of the electron known as spin. Much li

Researchers studied a naturally occurring flaw in diamonds known as the nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center. The center is a defect in the crystal lattice structure of a diamond, where instead of an interwoven carbon atom, an atom of nitrogen is embedded.

By focusing a pulsating laser beam on the NV center, scientists can capture snapshots of the state of the atom and its quantum state. The first pulse activates the the atom into an excited state, and the second pulse stops activity, allowing researchers to capture the minute differences across the atoms quantum spin.

“This technique offers a path toward understanding and controlling new materials at the atomic level,” said Professor Guido Burkard, theoretical physicist at the University of Konstanz and a co-author of the paper.