Plasma polishing is ideal for processing single crystal diamonds. Plasma
activates carbon atoms on the surface of the crystal without destroying its structure, thanks to which a quartz glass plate can remove all roughness from the surface.Nian Lu, author of the paper and a physicist at Osaka University in Japan
Note that today scientists are able to grow artificial diamonds of various sizes. It is planned that the minerals can be used in quantum devices and other electronics.
However, there is a problem: the growth of diamonds is not fully managed. Because of this, defects form on the minerals and their mechanical properties deteriorate.
A group of scientists decided to try to fixdefects on diamonds by treating them with a plasma flow and polishing with quartz glass. Thanks to this, scientists reduced the average height of defects on the surface of flat diamond plates from 0.66 microns to 0.4 nm.
Processed diamonds can now be used forsolving any problem that requires perfectly polished precious stones. For example, when creating cooling systems for nanoelectronics, as well as components of quantum computers or conventional transistors.
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