HARD - Hannover Alliance for Research on Diamond

The IMPT receives more than 2.6 million euros in investment funding through the "European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) as part of the Union's response to the COVID-19 pandemic", which is being used to finance the "HARD - Hannover Alliance for Research on Diamond" project. In addition, the institute provides its own partial share of the funding.

Diamond has a number of unique material properties such as: excellent biocompatibility, hardness, wear resistance, transparency, chemical stability, and thermal conductivity. In addition, diamond is gaining more and more importance in fundamental research as a functional material in MOEMS, MEMS, and NEMS, with tailored optical and electrical properties. Applications include biosensors, transparent electrodes, photochemical systems, and quantum optical devices. An interdisciplinary alliance (HARD) of outstanding institutes, scientists, and researchers has been formed at the LUH and the MHH, which have a high-quality contribution in application-oriented research on diamond-functionalized devices and systems. The use of diamond will strengthen the existing research priorities and the coordinated research projects through a special infrastructure project, so that future innovative leaps are secured through the integration of diamond as a functional material in the participating research disciplines. This will be achieved through the procurement and commissioning of a production line for the manufacture, structuring, functionalization and integration of diamond coatings, which will enable higher performance and novel functions in existing and future systems.