Cambridge Isotope Labs Announces the First Commercially Available Quantum-Grade Gas, 12C Methane QG-Alpha™ for High-Performance Nitrogen-Vacancy Center Diamonds

(PRNewswire) Cambridge Isotope Laboratories, Inc. (CIL), part of the Otsuka Group and the world’s leading producer of stable isotopes and stable isotope-labeled compounds, has launched the first commercially available 12C-enriched methane-grade gas for quantum applications.
“Quantum magnetometers and Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) often rely on nitrogen-vacancy center diamonds, also known as NV centers or color centers diamonds,” states CIL’s Director of European Business Development Joel Louette. “Regardless of which method is used to synthetize these NV centers diamonds, Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) or High-Pressure High-Temperature (HPHT), they require an ultrahigh-purity starting material, highly enriched in 12C and very low nitrogen content. The low nitrogen content facilitates the implementation of the exact number of NV centers in the diamond, while the high 12C enrichment dramatically increases the coherence time at room temperature.”
For decades, CIL has worked with the best academic laboratories and diamond industry leaders to provide a starting material compatible with their applications. CIL’s 12C methane QG-alpha material offers 99.99% (4N) 12C enrichment and 3 ppm or less of nitrogen content.