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A sheet of diamond with crystals less than 5 nanometres across has conducted
electrons for the first time, researchers from Argonne National Labs in Illinois
told the ACS. This is because the film is so thin you can dope it with nitrogen.
And as diamond already conducts “holes”—vacancies where electrons once
were—it might be possible to use both of these properties to build
diamond-based transistors. Combined with its hardness, this new-found property
could be useful in building micromachines. The team made the films by breaking
apart buckyballs (C₆₀) or methane and letting the fragments condense.
“Diamond will be a breakthrough technology,” predicts Dieter…