India’s first Quantum Diamond Microscope marks a critical step towards practical quantum sensing under the National Quantum Mission
Quantum technology (QT) has seen a significant rise in interest in recent years, with 2025 emerging as the most active year for quantum-focused venture capital investment to date. Interest continued to grow, with the United Nations declaring 2025 the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology (IYQ). However, one of the primary obstacles to the development of QT remains its limited practical applicability, which significantly limits commercial viability, with quantum sensing emerging as the avenue closest to achieving it.
In this context, India’s recent announcement of its first Quantum Diamond Microscope is of particular significance. In addition to serving as an important milestone for India’s ambitious National Quantum Mission (NQM), it represents a rare instance of a practically useful quantum technology with critical real-world applications in fields such as geology, medicine, and microelectronic quality assurance. As such, it can pave the way for the development of future quantum sensing systems, which are of particular importance from the perspective of technology translation.
India’s recent announcement of its first Quantum Diamond Microscope is of particular significance. In addition to serving as an important milestone for India’s ambitious National Quantum Mission (NQM), it represents a rare instance of a practically useful quantum technology with critical real-world applications in fields such as geology, medicine, and microelectronic quality assurance.
In November 2025, the Photonics and Quantum Enabled Sensing Technology (PQuest) Lab at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay announced the development of India’s first Quantum Diamond Microscope (QDM), which marked the country’s first patent in the field. IIT Bombay serves as the Thematic Hub for quantum sensing and metrology under the NQM, one of the four focus areas under the mission.
QDM is one of the applications under the ambit of quantum sensing. Broadly, quantum sensing refers to any sensing system or platform that exploits inherently quantum mechanical properties of matter, such as discrete or quantised energy states, quantum entanglement, and quantum tunnelling, to perform highly accurate measurements of various quantities such as time, electromagnetic fields, and gravitational fields. One of the emerging avenues for quantum sensing is solid-state defect sensors, which use point defects in solids such as wide-bandgap semiconductors (like silicon carbide) and diamonds to make precise measurements of physical quantities, including magnetic fields.
QDMs fall under the category of solid-state defect sensors, wherein a pair of Carbon atoms in a diamond lattice is replaced by a single Nitrogen atom, thereby creating a Nitrogen Vacancy (NV) centre.
Figure 1: Formation of NV Centre
Source: Medium
This NV centre has certain unique properties which make it particularly useful as a magnetometer (or magnetic field sensor). When exposed to a magnetic field, it exhibits fluorescence, a property which can be exploited using lasers for optical pumping and microwaves to detect minute variations in magnetic fields. Moreover, unlike other sensors such as superconducting magnetometers, QDMs can be operated at room temperature and require a relatively simple experimental setup, with multiple constituent parts being commercially available. For instance, QDMs utilise lab-grown Chemical Vapour Deposition (CVD) diamonds, which are developed globally by companies like Element Six.
The experimental setup employed by the PQuest team is displayed in the figure below.
Figure 2: QDM Experimental Setup
Source: Sub-second Temporal Magnetic Field Microscopy Using Quantum Defects in Diamond, Parashar et al
The ability of QDMs to detect extremely weak magnetic fields leads to a wide variety of potential applications. In geology, they can be used to analyse the variation of the magnetisation of rocks with temperature, thereby elucidating the exact process of their formation and shedding light on the geomagnetic history of the Earth. They can likewise be used to map changes in magnetisation around earthquake slip zones, leading to more accurate earthquake models and predictions.
QDMs can have a profound impact in medicine, particularly in the realm of brain imaging and detecting neural activity, as they are far more sensitive to small magnetic fields as compared to traditional methods like Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and can provide better accuracy. Moreover, MRI relies on a bulky and complex setup as opposed to the more compact QDM, and is limited by its reliance on strong magnets, thereby restricting its applicability in the presence of metallic objects.
A QDM can function as a semiconductor quality assurance tool by performing fault analysis, enabling enhanced energy efficiency and reduced chip failures.
One of the key applications of QDMs lies in imaging integrated circuits (ICs) and microelectronic components, used extensively in semiconductor chips and most current electronic devices. A QDM can function as a semiconductor quality assurance tool by performing fault analysis, enabling enhanced energy efficiency and reduced chip failures. Furthermore, their ability to detect anomalous current activity can enable the detection of hardware Trojans, offering a viable means for detecting IC tampering. In this regard, IIT Bombay is collaborating with Tata Consultancy Services to develop a Quantum Diamond Microchip Imager.
The development of an indigenous QDM marks a significant milestone for India’s NQM. Unlike other avenues of quantum technology, like quantum computing and quantum communication, quantum sensing systems like QDMs have real-world, practical applications and thereby constitute an important step towards technology translation. Moreover, the comparatively less complex nature of NV centre-based quantum sensors makes them more cost-effective than more commonly used quantum sensing platforms such as superconductors. Consequently, developing alternative indigenous quantum sensing systems can aid tremendously in overcoming the infamous ‘Valley of Death’ for startups and entities working in the field.
Quantum magnetometers have significant potential military applications and can offer a viable alternative to traditional Position, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) systems.
Furthermore, developing novel quantum sensing platforms has wider implications for national security. In addition to the potential microelectronic quality assurance tool provided by the QDM, IIT Bombay has also developed QMagPI, India’s first portable quantum magnetometer, which can detect ultra-low magnetic fields in the nanotesla (nT) range. Quantum magnetometers have significant potential military applications and can offer a viable alternative to traditional Position, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) systems. As such, PQuest Lab’s achievements are commendable and mark a significant step for the NQM as well as furthering the development of practical quantum technology applications in India.
Prateek Tripathi is an Associate Fellow with the Centre for Security, Strategy and Technology (CSST) at the Observer Research Foundation.
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Prateek Tripathi is an Associate Fellow at the Centre for Security, Strategy and Technology. His work focuses on an emerging technologies and deep tech including quantum ...
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