New diamond bonding technique a breakthrough for quantum devices

A paper has solved a major hurdle facing researchers working with diamond by creating a novel way of bonding diamonds directly to materials that integrate easily with either quantum or conventional electronics. With this technique, the team directly bonded diamond with materials including silicon, fused silica, sapphire, thermal oxide, and lithium niobate without an intermediary substance to act as ‘glue.’ Instead of the several-hundred microns thick bulk diamonds typically used to study quantum qubits, the team bonded crystalline membranes as thin as 100 nanometers while still maintaining a spin coherence suitable for advanced quantum applications.