Quantum Physicists Found a New, Safer Way to Navigate

In 2015, the U.S. Lockheed Martin’s quantum magnetometer contains a tiny diamond cube as a sensor. Lockheed Martin For nearly five years, DiMario’s team has been building a prototype: a cylinder, about a foot long and six inches in diameter, containing a synthetic diamond cube barely larger than a salt crystal. These so-called nitrogen vacancy centers, or NV centers, sort of bind together to form a molecule-like duo inside the diamond, and they turn out to be excellent magnetic sensors. Due to quantum mechanics’ effects, the diamond emits more or less light depending on the magnetic field that it is in.