Public Funding for Element Six (UK) Limited.

Diamonds are best known as jewellery but by adding particular impurities called nitrogen vacancy centres (NVCs) they become pink instead of colourless. Each NVC behaves like an atom with useful quantum behaviour including the fact that they are sensitive to magnetic fields. We have used a diamond with many NVCs to build a very sensitive magnetometer. It doesn't require cooling or heating which makes it more suitable for applications including the medical applications we are focusing on. In this project we aim to improve the sensitivity enough to see the tiny magnetic fields created by our heartbeats. This is called magnetocardiography (MCG). The magnetic field from a heartbeat is one million times weaker than the Earth's magnetic field. We will make our diamond magnetometer up to ten times more sensitive in this project, but then we would still need to make it at least 10 times more sensitive again to be medically useful. We will combine quantum and classical engineering to achieve this. Detecting MCG should help us (in further work after the timescale of this 6-month project) to predict sudden cardiac death (SCD), which is responsible for half of all heart disease deaths. SCD occurs when the electrical function of the heart malfunctions and unregulated patterns of conduction predominate. This can cause the heart to fail to output blood and rapidly lead to a life threatening situation. MCG is known to be medically useful but has not been successfully commercialised so far because it has required expensive magnetometers that must be cryogenically cooled. An advantage of MCG is that it is completely non-invasive as it simply involves detecting the magnetic fields that are naturally emitted by our hearts.

Quantum technologies takes advantage of the strange world of quantum mechanics where, for example, objects can exist in two places at once. This world typically occurs on the atomic level at low temperatures which has meant that technologies that exploit these properties have been challenging to implement and manufacture. Diamond is quickly becoming a leading quantum material due to the unique way quantum properties of impurities imbedded in diamonds crystal lattice can be controlled simply by the application of light. What is even more amazing is that, unlike other materials that require specialist cryogenic cooling, these quantum properties persist at room temperature making it possible to be widely deployable. These 'quantum defects' have the potential to be used for a range of applications such as measuring the magnetic fields emitted from molecules, enabling key understanding of the molecules composition for development of new medication. It also has the potential to detect different types of proteins which can provide information about the processes occurring in your body and allow the diagnosis of early diseases. Lastly it has applications in quantum computing which has the potential to solve problems no current computer can. Critical to the development of these technologies is to have the 'quantum defects' close to the surface of the diamond but retaining their unique quantum properties. This projects objective is develop a process to create near-surface quantum defects and therefore allow the further development of these revolutionary technologies.

Quantum technologies are at an inflection point in technology readiness that will change the way we live, do business, and even how scientific research is conducted. Globally $2.2B are being invested every year to progress this technology. The United Kingdom has been at the forefront of developing the science and is home to world-leading experts in the manufacturing and validation of quantum technology and to world-class commercial partners across the whole supply chain from production to integration and measurement. However, the ecosystem for robust fab-ready processing of these novel devices and circuits needs further development. This project addresses this gap by leveraging links between recognized academic institutions in quantum science and engineering, industry leaders, and emerging commercial efforts in quantum computing and sensing with an aim to drive this technology towards higher readiness levels. The quantum technology platform that will be addressed in this consortium on the UK side are atomic layer deposited films for superconducting and hybrid quantum systems. These films are integrated in quantum circuits and thereby form the basis for high-coherent devices exploration academically and commercially. A second platform, albeit smaller on the UK side, are diamond NV centres to be harnessed for quantum sensing applications by the Canadian partners. Fabrication processes for manufacturing of these devices will be developed and optimized with characterization feedback using quantum technology figures of merit to ensure these materials are strongly tailored to function efficiently in quantum computers, simulators, networks, and sensors. Altogether, this project will provide an advanced manufacturing toolkit readily available for commercial exploitation by the industry partners (SMEs and startups) and new discovery means for the academic institutions.

Diamond has shown itself to be a leading material for a range of applications requiring quantum-state control such as quantum computing and sensing. This is by virtue of the fact that the quantum-state (a ‘on’ or ‘off’) of engineered impurities (‘qubits’) contained within diamond can be controlled and read-out simply by shining light on the diamond, combined with the application of a microwave field, and measuring light that is emitted. Unlike many other materials such techniques can be conducted at normal room temperatures, instead of requiring dramatic cooling to temperatures < -173 degrees C. These ‘quantum defects’ can be used to sense very small magnetic fields, hence sensors made from diamond have the potential to be used in applications for mining, underwater pipe detection and as diagnostic tools in medicine. Critical to the development of these devices is to have a man-made diamond material with an optimised fraction of quantum defects that is both reproducible and can be manufactured at scale. Therefore this project will work on all the elements required to turn prototype magnetic-field sensors into a productionised commercial process to enable the next generation of devices.

This industry led, collaborative project will investigate new and existing remote sensing technologies, , for application in High Pressure High Temperature (HPHT) diamond synthesis. To date, the challenge of extreme pressures (up to 15GPa), temperatures (up to 2000K) in the presence of molten metal catalysts in HPHT synthesis, have prevented the routine incorporation of real-time pressure sensing or even robust temperature sensing. As a result, current diamond production processes are effectively "flying blind", This lack of feedback control from the synthesis capsule severely limits automation. During this three year project, we hope to identify and develop robust or remote sensing technologies that are able give real-time information about pressures and temperatures during the diamond synthesis process.The outputs from these sensors will then be used to increase automation in existing processes and also to enable development of robust predictive modelling, leading to increase efficiency throughout R&D and Production. Element Six (E6) is the lead partner and industrial end user whilst Oxford University will be providing the sensing expertise