IIT Bombay develops India’s first indigenous Quantum Diamond Microscope

• Researchers at IIT Bombay have developed India’s first indigenous Quantum Diamond Microscope (QDM) for dynamic magnetic field imaging under the National Quantum Mission (NQM) of the Department of Science and Technology (DST).

• The breakthrough marks a milestone in quantum sensing and has earned India its first patent in this domain.

• The QDM has promising potential in neuroscience and materials research. 

• It is also poised to transform the non-destructive evaluation of semiconductor chips by mapping magnetic field in 3D layers within an encapsulated chip.

• With the rise of 3D chip architectures in advanced electronics, cryogenic processors, and autonomous systems, conventional diagnostic tools fall short of visualising buried current paths and multilayer charge flow. 

• The QDM developed by the Photonics and Quantum Enabled Sensing Technology (PQUEST) Lab at IIT Bombay, led by Kasturi Saha, based on nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamond, represents a powerful platform for three-dimensional magnetic field imaging at the nanoscale.

• NV center is atomic-scale defect formed by a nitrogen atom adjacent to a vacancy.

• NV centers exhibit robust quantum coherence even at room temperature, making them exceptionally sensitive to magnetic, electric, and thermal variations. 

• Their spin-dependent fluorescence, detected via optically detected magnetic resonance (ODMR), enables optical readout of local magnetic fields. 

• By engineering a thin diamond layer with high NV density, QDM enables widefield imaging of dynamic magnetic activity, analogous to an optical microscope.

• QDM offers a path toward direct, high-resolution 3D magnetic mapping of integrated circuits, batteries, and microelectronic devices.

• Aligned with India’s National Quantum Mission, the team of researchers aims to develop a quantum imaging platform integrating QDM with AI/ML-based computational imaging, paving the way for advanced chip diagnostics, biological imaging, and geological magnetisation studies—all rooted in precise, three-dimensional magnetic field visualisation.

(The author is a trainer for Civil Services aspirants.)