Scientists from the Physics Institute. P.N. Lebedev (FIAN) of the Russian Academy of Sciences discovered a new physical phenomenon, which can be used to easily and inexpensively create optical and electronic devices based on diamonds. According to the authors of the study, this approach will accelerate the development of devices based on this material.

To create something based on a diamond, it must be given a certain shape and its surface treated. Now they do it with a laser. Under the action of radiation from the surface of the material, its upper layer evaporates, which creates the desired relief, a process called laser ablation. The radiation that the crystal is treated with is polarized, that is, it is an electromagnetic wave, the oscillations of which are observed only in one plane. Scientists have found out how the polarization of a laser beam affects the evaporation of material from the surface of a diamond crystal. To do this, the sample was irradiated with laser pulses and the polarization was changed - it was passed through a special rotating plate. As a result of laser processing, depressions appeared on the surface of the crystal, the size of which depended on the level of radiation intensity.

Professor Rostislav Starikov, head of the laboratory of the Institute of Laser and Plasma Technologies, National Research Nuclear University MEPhI, believes that it is more correct to say that it is not a physical phenomenon that has been discovered, but a new technical possibility.

The expert suggested that this technology can be used to protect valuable diamonds, because it is quite difficult to forge a laser "signature". Rostislav Starikov emphasized that marking does not affect the quality of a diamond, but full information about the owner, producer and place of extraction can be recorded on it.