
Q-Carbon Is Harder (and Brighter) Than Diamond - bshanks
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/weird-new-type-carbon-harder-brighter-than-diamond-180957433/?no-ist
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cjensen
The article says "emits a soft glow". Since that's impossible for something
which isn't radioactive, I assume the reporter misunderstood something. What
property of the material were they referring to?

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OopsCriticality
> The article says "emits a soft glow". Since that's impossible for something
> which isn't radioactive…

Not at all true.

In this case, it could be a phosphorescence or fluorescence process (the NYT
says fluorescence), initiated by ambient light.

I skimmed both scholarly publications on this material but didn't find any
mention of optical properties. I would ordinarily guess that any optical
emission would involve an internal defect site (as happens with other
optically-active diamond structures), but I'm thinking that's not a good guess
given the synthesis process and overall quality of the monocrystalline
product. A better guess might be some sort of "deep trap" emission involving
surface defects.

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nikdaheratik
According to the NYT article:
[http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/03/science/q-carbon-harder-
th...](http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/03/science/q-carbon-harder-than-
diamond.html) The substence is "magnetic, fluorescent and electroconductive"
so likely it's referring to the fluorescent property and it had an electric
current running through it during the demo.

