Russian scientists have found a way to turn diamond into metal

Russian physicists from Skoltech, together with colleagues from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, managed to find out that diamond nano-needles, upon mechanical deformation, transform from an electrical insulator into a full-fledged metal one conductor.

In this case, all other properties inherent in diamond remain unchanged. That's what I want to tell you about today.

How the discovery was made

This discovery was not made by chance. Initially, scientists created a computer model of the reversible deformation of diamond nano needles, and based on the results of this simulation a machine learning algorithm was created in order to deal with the optimal selection of material properties and applied load.

So it was found that with a certain geometry of the nano-needles, even a slight bend quite effectively changes the properties of the material from an insulator to a conductor.

In principle, the method of deformation of semiconductors to correct their initial properties has been used by physicists for the past two years. However, when working with silicon, the deformation could be reversible only if it did not exceed 1%.

But physicists from Skoltsekh managed to make significant progress in a new study and they proved that with certain conditions, diamond nano-needles can be deformed by 10% at normal room temperature.

And after the cessation of exposure, the material returned to its original form, and its dielectric properties were restored in full.

Unique experience and prospects of discovery

As one of the authors of the study, Professor Jiu Li, stated, during the work it was found that the width of the forbidden zone of a diamond can be smoothly changed from 5.6 electron volts to almost zero.

Simply put, due to controlled deformation, you can choose what the forbidden zone will be at the current moment, for example like silicon (used as a semiconductor) or like gallium nitride (used to produce LEDs).

Thus, it is even possible to create an infrared detector from diamond, which is able to perceive the entire spectrum of light: from infrared radiation to ultraviolet radiation.

Such a unique ability to change the electrical conductivity of a diamond without disturbing the stability of the lattice and its chemical composition open just unique opportunities in the creation of fundamentally new electronic devices.

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