Diamonds are famous for their beauty, but their real superpower may lie in electronics.
Beyond sparkle, diamond is one of the toughest and most efficient materials known.
It moves heat away faster than any other solid, survives extreme temperatures and radiation, and can handle very high voltages while wasting little energy.
These traits make diamond an ideal candidate for powerful, compact electronic devices used in power grids, factories, space missions, and even nuclear environments.
Yet despite these advantages, diamond-based electronics have struggled to take off. The main reason is a long-standing technical problem: it is extremely difficult to add free electrons to diamond in a useful way.
This process, known as n-type doping, is essential for making modern electronic components like diodes and transistors.
To build working electronic devices, engineers need both n-type regions, which supply electrons, and p-type regions, which carry positive charges called holes.
Where these two regions meet, they form a PN junction, the basic building block of nearly all electronic circuits.
While p-type diamond is relatively easy to make, creating n-type diamond that works at room temperature has remained a major obstacle.
Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory believe they have found a way around this problem by pairing diamond with an ultrathin, two-dimensional material.
Instead of forcing foreign atoms into diamond’s tightly packed crystal structure, the team used a clever workaround known as heterointegration.
The idea is simple but powerful. Rather than chemically altering diamond, the researchers placed a one-atom-thick layer of a material called molybdenum disulfide on top of it. This 2D material naturally carries electrons.
When the two materials are stacked together, their interaction creates an electric effect at the boundary that allows electrons to flow into the diamond without traditional doping.
This process is called electrostatic doping. It uses electric forces rather than chemical additives to control how charges move. As a result, the diamond behaves as if it has been doped with electrons, even though its structure remains intact.
When a voltage is applied, electrons from the 2D layer can tunnel into the diamond and combine with holes there, creating an electric current at room temperature. According to the researchers, this kind of performance has not been seen before in diamond-based devices.
The findings, published in Nano Letters, open a new path for diamond electronics. Because diamond is so resistant to heat and radiation, it can also protect the delicate 2D layer, helping the device remain stable in harsh conditions where conventional electronics would fail.
Looking ahead, the team plans to test how these new devices perform under radiation and whether they can be integrated into existing electronic systems. They are also exploring other two-dimensional materials that could further improve performance.
If successful, this approach could finally allow diamond to live up to its long-promised potential—not as jewelry, but as the backbone of next-generation, high-power electronics.
