Diamond is extremely valuable to science and technology not for its sparkle but for its extreme hardness, high thermal conductivity, transparency to a large fraction of the light spectrum, and a host of other exceptional properties. Two decades ago, scientists discovered another advantage: under the right conditions, diamond can become a superconductor—allowing electricity to flow through it with zero resistance.

Until recently, though, they knew little about how that happens, limiting its use in high-tech applications.

Now researchers from the Pennsylvania State University, the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering (PME), and the U.S. Department of Energy National Quantum Information Science Research Center Q-NEXT, led by Argonne National Laboratory, have uncovered new insights into the physics behind the phenomenon by carefully creating high-quality diamond, isolating electronic signatures from material noise, and revealing the fundamental mechanisms that had long remained hidden.