New state of carbon is a glow-in-the-dark, ferromagnetic diamond

Forbes : The usual process for creating diamond from carbon requires extremely high temperatures and pressures and is thus highly inefficient. Now Jay Narayan of North Carolina State University in Raleigh and his colleagues have created a new diamond-like form of carbon, and they have done so at room temperature and pressure. Using high-powered, pulsed nanosecond lasers like the ones employed in eye surgery, the researchers raised the carbon’s temperature to 4000 K. Extremely rapid cooling leaves a film of the new state of carbon, dubbed Q-carbon. The material is harder than traditional diamond, glows in response to even small amounts of energy, and is unexpectedly ferromagnetic. Narayan says that Q-carbon could be useful for electronic displays, for the manufacture of diamond structures such as nano- or microneedles for drug delivery, or for high-temperature switches in electronics.