Scientists in Russia have doped carbon with boron at high temperatures and pressures. The result is the creation of a form of diamond that super conducts and exhibits bulk superconductivity below around 4 Kelvin and remains a superconductor in strong magnetic fields. A boron doped diamond is normally a semiconductor but it has for the first time under these conditions shown superconductivity.

Diamond has exceptional properties such as electric insulation, hardness, conduction of heat and also resistance to strong electric fields. Thus when it is doped with charge carriers such as boron, diamonds are more useful in electronics applications. Boron doped diamonds were created by reacting graphite carbon with boron carbide (B4C) at 2500Kelvin and 8 gigapascals for a few seconds. The diamond contained about 2 to 3% of boron as revealed by the Nuclear magnetic resonance and mass spectrometry.

The superconducting transition temperature (Tc) at which the resistance of the superconductor falls to zero is 4 Kelvin. All this has been made possible by measuring the electrical resistivity and magnetic susceptibility of the boron doped diamond. The diamond retains its superconductivity properties in magnetic fields of 3.5 Tesla.

According to Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer theory of superconductivity that the interactions between the vibrations of the crystal lattice and the electrons, allow the electrons to overcome their individual electrostatic repulsive forces to bind together and form pairs, thus leading to superconductivity. These electron pairs are called as phonons. It is not easy to predict and prove superconductivity behavior in diamonds. But recent tests have shown that percolation of impurities in the diamond lattice may also be the cause of such behavior. Superconductivity as a phenomenon is very rare and more tests on related elements such as silicon and germanium might yield significant results. However the properties of diamonds as such are very unique and yet new properties are being revealed everyday.

The discoveries are coming from all over the world, Japan; South Africa all have pronounced that diamond has that superconducting property. This can lead to a very bright future for the electronics world which has been searching for a superconductor of the nature of diamonds to lead the way in the electronics revolution of the future.