Synthetic diamond (also known as laboratory-created diamond, laboratory-grown diamond, cultured diamond or cultivated diamond) is diamond produced in an artificial process, as opposed to natural diamonds, which are created by geological processes. Synthetic diamond is also widely known as HPHT diamond or CVD diamond after the two common production methods (referring to the high-pressure high-temperature and chemical vapor deposition crystal formation methods, respectively).
Although often
referred to as synthetic, this term has been considered
somewhat problematic. In the U.S., the Federal Trade Commission has indicated
that the alternative terms laboratory-grown,
laboratory-created, and [manufacturer-name]-created
"would more clearly communicate the nature of the stone", as
consumers associate the term synthetic
with imitation products – whereas man-made diamonds are actual diamond
material.
Numerous claims of diamond
synthesis were documented between 1879 and 1928; most of those attempts were
carefully analyzed but none were confirmed. In the 1940s, systematic research
began in the United States, Sweden and the Soviet Union to grow diamonds using
CVD and HPHT processes. The first reproducible synthesis was reported around
1953. Those two processes still dominate the production of synthetic diamond. A
third method, known as detonation synthesis, entered the diamond market in the
late 1990s. In this process, nanometer-sized diamond grains are created in a
detonation of carbon-containing explosives. A fourth method, treating graphite
with high-power ultrasound, has been demonstrated in the laboratory, but
currently has no commercial application.
The
properties of synthetic diamond depend on the details of the manufacturing
processes; however, some synthetic diamonds (whether formed by HPHT or CVD)
have properties such as hardness, thermal conductivity and electron mobility
that are superior to those of most naturally-formed diamonds. Learn
about diamond
buying guide.
Synthetic diamond is
widely used in abrasives, in cutting and polishing tools and in heat sinks.
Electronic applications of synthetic diamond are being developed, including
high-power switches at power stations, high-frequency field-effect transistors
and light-emitting diodes. Synthetic diamond detectors of ultraviolet (UV)
light or high-energy particles are used at high-energy research facilities and
are available commercially. Because of its unique combination of thermal and
chemical stability, low thermal expansion and high optical transparency in a
wide spectral range, synthetic diamond is becoming the most popular material for
optical windows in high-power CO2 lasers and gyrotrons. It is
estimated that 98% of industrial grade diamond demand is supplied with
synthetic diamonds.
Both CVD and HPHT
diamonds can be cut into gems and various colors can be produced: clear white,
yellow, brown, blue, green and orange. The appearance of synthetic gems on the
market created major concerns in the diamond trading business, as a result of
which special spectroscopic devices and techniques have been developed to
distinguish synthetic and natural diamonds.
Gemstones
Synthetic diamonds for
use as gemstones are grown by HPHT or CVD methods. They
are available in yellow and blue, and to a lesser extent colorless (or white).
The yellow color comes from nitrogen impurities in the manufacturing process,
while the blue color comes from boron. Other colors, such as pink or
green, are achievable after synthesis using irradiation. Several
companies also offer memorial diamonds grown using cremated remains.
Gem-quality diamonds
grown in a lab can be chemically, physically and optically identical (and
sometimes superior) to naturally occurring ones. The mined diamond industry has
undertaken legal, marketing and distribution countermeasures to protect its
market from the emerging presence of synthetic diamonds. Man-made diamonds can
be distinguished by spectroscopy in the infrared, ultraviolet, or X-ray
wavelengths. The DiamondView tester from
De Beers uses UV fluorescence to detect trace impurities of nitrogen, nickel or
other metals in HPHT or CVD diamonds.
At least one maker of
laboratory-grown diamonds has made public statements about being
"committed to disclosure" of the nature of its diamonds, and
laser-inscribes serial numbers on all of its gemstones. The company
web site shows an example of the lettering of one of its laser inscriptions,
which includes both the words "Gemesis
created" and the serial number prefix "LG" (laboratory
grown).
Properties
Traditionally, the
absence of crystal flaws is considered to be the most important quality of a diamond.
Purity and high crystalline perfection make diamonds transparent and clear,
whereas its hardness, optical dispersion (luster) and chemical stability
(combined with marketing), make it a popular gemstone. High thermal
conductivity is also important for technical applications. Whereas high optical
dispersion is an intrinsic property of all diamonds, their other properties
vary depending on how the diamond was created.
Crystallinity
Diamond can be one
single, continuous crystal or it can be made up of many smaller crystals
(polycrystal). Large, clear and transparent single-crystal diamonds are
typically used in gemstones. Polycrystalline diamond (PCD)
consists of numerous small grains, which are easily seen by the naked eye
through strong light absorption and scattering; it is unsuitable for gems and
is used for industrial applications such as mining and cutting tools.
Polycrystalline diamond is often described by the average size (or grain
size) of the crystals that make it up. Grain sizes range from nanometers to
hundreds of micrometers, usually referred to as "nanocrystalline" and
"microcrystalline" diamond, respectively.
Hardness
Synthetic diamond is
the hardest material known, where hardness is defined as resistance
to scratching and is graded between 1 (softest) and 10 (hardest) using the Mohs
scale of mineral hardness. Diamond has a hardness of 10 (hardest) on this
scale. The hardness of synthetic diamond depends on its purity, crystalline
perfection and orientation: hardness is higher for flawless, pure crystals
oriented to the [111] direction (along the longest diagonal of the cubic
diamond lattice). Nanocrystalline diamond produced through CVD diamond growth
can have a hardness ranging from 30% to 75% of that of single crystal diamond,
and the hardness can be controlled for specific applications. Some synthetic
single-crystal diamonds and HPHT nanocrystalline diamonds are harder than any
known natural diamond.
Impurities and inclusions
Every diamond contains
atoms other than carbon in concentrations detectable by analytical techniques.
Those atoms can aggregate into macroscopic phases called inclusions. Impurities
are generally avoided, but can be introduced intentionally as a way to control
certain properties of the diamond. For instance, pure diamond is an electrical
insulator, but diamond with boron added is an electrical conductor (and, in
some cases, a superconductor), allowing it to be used in electronic
applications. Nitrogen impurities hinder movement of lattice dislocations
(defects within the crystal structure) and put the lattice under compressive
stress, thereby increasing hardness and toughness.
Thermal conductivity
Unlike most electrical
insulators, pure diamond is a good conductor of heat because of the strong
covalent bonding within the crystal. The thermal conductivity of pure diamond
is the highest of any known solid. Single crystals of synthetic diamond
enriched in 12C (99.9%), isotopically pure diamond,
have the highest thermal conductivity of any material, 30 W/cm·K at room
temperature, 7.5 times higher than copper. Natural diamond's conductivity is
reduced by 1.1% by the 13C naturally present, which
acts as an inhomogeneity in the lattice.
Diamond's thermal
conductivity is made use of by jewelers and gemologists who may employ an
electronic thermal probe to separate diamonds from their imitations. These probes
consist of a pair of battery-powered thermistors mounted in a fine copper tip.
One thermistor functions as a heating device while the other measures the
temperature of the copper tip: if the stone being tested is a diamond, it will
conduct the tip's thermal energy rapidly enough to produce a measurable
temperature drop. This test takes about 2–3 seconds.
Diamond
Labs Documentary- TRANSCRIPT
NARRATOR
(NEIL PEARSON):
Diamonds are the most prestigious of all gems, originally the domain of royalty
diamonds bring glamour, sophistication and class. But diamonds are so rare in
nature they don’t come cheap.
JEREMY
NORRIS (David Morris International):
This is the classic ten-carat emerald cut which I’m sure every woman would love
to own and that’s around six hundred and fifty thousand dollars.
NARRATOR: But how would you feel if you
could get your hands on top quality merchandise for a fraction of the price?
We’re not talking about fakes, but diamonds grown in a lab.
Prof
BOB HAZEN (Mineral Scientist, Carnegie Trust): Synthesising diamonds, they’ve been a holy grail. For
physicists, for chemists, for two hundred years people had tried to make
diamonds and they had failed.
NARRATOR: The possibility of being able to
mass produce high quality diamonds has sent shock waves through the
multi-billion dollar diamond industry.
MARTIN
RAPAPORT (Publisher, Rapaport Diamond Report): What if there is a way to synthesise diamonds that
are non-detectable from natural diamonds? What if technology uses the ability
to make these synthetic diamond and no one knows it’s synthetic?
NARRATOR: This is the story of the diamond
makers, and how one day these fabulous gemstones may become available to us
all.
NARRATOR: On the outskirts of Boston, hidden
away in a secret lab, a father and son team were hoping to become fabulously
rich. They were trying to grow in their laboratory the most valuable gemstone
known to man. No one knew if it would work.
Dr
ROBERT LINARES (Apollo Diamond):
Following growth you always put the diamond in to a, an acid bath, to clean off
any graphite that’s on the surface. So we put this, these in, left it over the
weekend.
NARRATOR: They had spent years refining
their technique, but so far every attempt had failed. But checking in on that
Monday morning Robert Linares noticed something very odd. At first it seemed
that not only had the experiment failed but the diamond had disappeared
completely.
Dr
ROBERT LINARES:
Came down on Monday and we didn’t see the diamond there. We saw nothing. And
then we looked further and we noticed that the crystal was there. But it was
perfectly transparent, it was perfectly colourless. It was like someone had
pulled a hood off of our heads and we could see the truth. And at that moment
we knew we had crossed a huge barrier and we could now make very perfect
diamonds.
NARRATOR: Robert Linares had achieved
something that had eluded science for centuries. He had made a gem quality
diamond to rival the very best found in nature. A breakthrough so astonishing
that it might revolutionise the multi-billion dollar diamond market. Diamonds
are the ultimate statement of luxury, glittering and sexy they’ve never gone
out of fashion. Even today there are plenty of women who believe diamonds are a
girl’s best friend.
STEPHEN
LUSSIER (De Beers):
Our job as marketers is not to make women want diamonds I can tell you, they
want them before we start, our job is just to help them to get them. I talk to
enough women around the world about diamonds to know what it is that they, that
they dream about. They dream about owning a piece of eternity.
NARRATOR: What makes diamonds so special is
that they sparkle like no other gemstone.
MARTIN
RAPAPORT: It has
that unique combination of life and brilliance and class, it really makes you
feel special when you're looking at it.
NARRATOR: Such is the allure of these rocks
that people go to extraordinary lengths to get their hands on them.
NEWS
READER: Good
evening, five men who tried to pull off the biggest robbery in history were
jailed today for a total of seventy four years, when they tried to steal two
hundred million pounds worth of diamonds on display at the Millennium Dome.
They got as far as smashing a supposedly bombproof display case, but the flying
squad knew all about the plot and they were waiting in ambush. One said I was only
twelve inches from payday, it would have been a blinding Christmas.
NARRATOR: Diamonds occur naturally in the
ground, but digging them out is immensely difficult. With mines located in some
of the world’s most inhospitable places, it’s a dangerous and very expensive
business. You have to shift over two hundred tonnes of rock for every carat of
diamond. But ironically diamonds, for all their fire and sparkle are actually
just a very hard version of an extremely common element, diamond is nothing
more than a lump of carbon. In nature pure carbon is more readily found in a
different form as soft black graphite.
Prof
BOB HAZEN (Mineral Scientist, Carnegie Institute): You see these structures couldn’t
be more different, you have graphite which is a beautifully layered structure,
it has layers of carbon atoms, separated by very weak bonds. Now within the
layers each carbon atom is beautifully coordinated to three other carbons, and
that leads to very strong layers. But the bonding between the layers are
exceptionally weak.
NARRATOR: But if that bonding is rearranged
something remarkable occurs.
Prof
BOB HAZEN: By
contrast diamond is the hardest material known, and it’s hard because of the
way it’s bonded together. This three-dimensional linkage in which every carbon
atom is surrounded by four neighbours. And if one is a complete
three-dimensional structure, you know a structure can only be as strong as its
weakest direction, and in diamonds there are no weak directions. Every bond is
almost as strong as a bond can be.
NARRATOR: The difference between the two
forms of carbon is so subtle that scientists have searched for ways of
transforming cheap graphite in to much more valuable diamond.
Prof
BOB HAZEN:
Synthesising diamonds had been a holy grail for physicists, for chemists, for
two hundred years people had tried to make diamonds and they had failed.
NARRATOR: That two centuries long quest
began with a worldwide hunt for clues. The very first came from the way
diamonds were formed in nature. It’s believed that diamonds are created two
hundred kilometres beneath the earth’s surface, and that they can take millions
or even billions of years to form. It’s then during rare and exceptionally
violent volcanic eruptions that diamonds are blasted to the surface within a
rock called kimberlite.
Prof
BOB HAZEN: Finding
diamonds in kimberlite gave hints to how diamonds were formed. It told you you
needed high temperature and high pressure because that’s where the kimberlites
came from, this volcanic rock from deep in the earth.
NARRATOR: The task facing would be diamond
makers was to mimic the vast pressures and savage temperatures found deep in
the earth, and to do it, not over millions of years, but in days. No one got
close until the 1950s, working in the greatest secrecy in the engineering
company General Electric, a team of American scientists took up the challenge.
They aimed to create diamond from graphite. GE spent millions of dollars
developing a gigantic four hundred tonne diamond press. It produced pressures
up to sixty thousand atmospheres and temperatures topping three thousand
Celsius. But they were making little headway.
Dr
HERBERT STRONG (Former GE scientist):
Thoughts very much worked on, on, on trying to convert graphite, or carbon in
to diamonds. Well, going straight from graphite to diamond didn’t, didn’t work.
NARRATOR: For four years all they got was
broken presses. There was something missing in their chemistry so they looked
for new clues. In a meteorite crater in Arizona diamonds had been discovered
encased in a substance called troilte, or iron sulphite. These diamonds were
formed by the high pressure and temperatures created during impact. The GE
scientists believed that troyalite might be the missing ingredient needed to
convert graphite in to diamond. So they had another go.
Dr
TRACY HALL (Former GE scientist):
It was a wintry day, it was cold but the sun was shining through the window.
And I had put some troyalite in this graphite tube, I put it in my apparatus, I
turned up my heating system and I put the pressure on.
FOOTAGE
VOICE OVER: The
force builds up and up and up, eventually reaching nearly five hundred tonne,
almost one million pounds per square inch, the outer surfaces reached seven
hundred and fifty degrees Fahrenheit. Inside two thousand six hundred degrees
Fahrenheit.
NARRATOR: They could only risk running their
machines for a few minutes, but they hoped it would be enough. Then just as
they’d done dozens of times before they broke open the capsule.
Dr
TRACY HALL: I got
down to the point where I picked things apart and got to look at what’s there
in the middle. And my eyes caught a gleam of the sun shining on these things. And
I twiddled it around a little bit and saw the sparkles. My knees weakened, I
had to sit down, I was overwhelmed. And at that instance I knew that man had
finally turned graphite in to diamond.
Dr
HERBERT STRONG: The
headlines in all the newspapers around the world, it had G E making diamonds
now. Wow it was just a very nice feeling that we had a tough problem and we had
solved it, we had been challenged and we met the challenge and faced it and
won.
NARRATOR: But for all this triumph GE’s
diamonds were nowhere near good enough to adorn the neck of a movie star.
Nevertheless their grit-sized grains didn’t go unnoticed in the boardroom of
the most powerful diamond-producing cartel in the world. De Beers is the diamond
industry, and it’s dominated the market for well over one hundred years.
STEPHEN
LUSSIER: We’ll sell
in the neighbourhood of five billion dollars worth of rough diamonds. I would
have thought a figure north of a hundred million carats a year total rough
production. Somewhere between fifty and sixty percent of the world’s supply.
NARRATOR: From their headquarters in central
London De Beers’ rough diamonds are sorted and distributed around the world.
Sold to select dealers for cutting and polishing. For years De Beers have
maintained extraordinary levels of control on the sixty billion dollar global
diamond market. Initially they didn’t see the arrival of manmade diamonds as a
threat, they were just too low quality, fit for only making industrial cutting
tools. However De Beers did see potential danger in the future if
diamond-making technology improved. So at a discreet facility on the outskirts
of London, De Beers created the Gem Defensive program. At vast cost the new
scientific division was set up to develop techniques to distinguish between
natural and synthetic diamonds.
STEPHEN
LUSSIER: Clearly we
knew that some day synthetic gems would be made available in the consumer
market. The crucial thing for us was to make sure that first the industry but
more importantly in the end consumer had every means possible to ensure we
could detect the simulant from the genuine article.
NARRATOR: With their scientists busy working
away De Beers were confident they had time in hand to prepare for any future
threats. But unknown to De Beers a challenge already existed hidden away behind
the iron curtain. With the break up of the Soviet Union Russian scientists were
keen to explore the new ideals of capitalism. In the early 90s on the outskirts
of Moscow diamond scientists Dr Boris Feigelson set up a lab in rooms rented
from the Institute of the Blind.
Dr
BORIS FEIGELSON - TRANSLATION (Diamond scientist): I had hopes, I even had dreams
about it. That was at the time when things started to happen.
NARRATOR: His original idea was to copy
General Electric’s theory of high pressure and high temperature. But instead of
tiny grains he planned to grow gem size diamonds. But he just didn’t have the
right gear. With little money he had to use whatever equipment came to hand.
His first attempts were wrought with danger.
Dr
BORIS FEIGELSON - TRANSLATION:
We had to select the right material and the right parts for the press. Because
if it was set up wrongly then it was quite possible that there would be an
explosion, every thing would come flying out at high pressure.
NARRATOR: In the end in contrast to the
giant machines used by General Electric, Feigelson cobbled together a diamond
press not much bigger than a washing machine. At its heart was a small
spherical growth chamber which used a unique method to create the required high
pressure. Pumping oil around the sphere created a moderate hydraulic pressure.
This was then amplified through specially shaped steel anvils to create a
massive fifty eight thousand atmospheres down at the central core. But at first
he still wasn’t getting the goods.
Dr
BORIS FEIGELSON - TRANSLATION:
When we thought we understood everything, everything was clear. Then something
emerged, something no one predicted, and everything fell through.
NARRATOR: Feigelson decided to try an old
crystal-growing trick and give his diamond a head start. Within the growth core
he added a tiny piece of low quality grit diamond. He hoped this would act as a
seed on which the growing diamond could form, above it was a metal solvent and
a layer of graphite. He then applied an electric current to heat the top of the
chamber. This dissolved the graphite in to the metal solvent releasing the
carbon atoms, the carbon atoms migrated through the molten solvent to the
cooler end of the capsule, where they crystallised on to the diamond seed
making it grow.
Dr
BORIS FEIGELSON - TRANSLATION:
We managed to get sometimes quite good crystals, but more often the results
were not good.
NARRATOR: Feigelson’s diamonds had telltale
signs which would betray their manmade origins. They often contained small
fragments of metal.
Dr
BORIS FEIGELSON - TRANSLATION:
It was clear to us that we had to refine the chemistry and stabilise the
heating process as much as possible.
NARRATOR: Feigelson eventually discovered
that by controlling the critical temperatures within the growth core in a very
precise manner he could dramatically improve the quality of his diamonds. His
diamond growing technique was still not consistent but Feigelson had realised
his dream. But there was something else about his diamonds, something that made
them potentially of extraordinary value. His diamonds weren’t crystal clear,
they were coloured.
Dr
BORIS FEIGELSON - TRANSLATION:
When we got our first good crystal we were naturally absolutely overwhelmed.
NARRATOR: Coloured diamonds are found in
nature but they’re extremely rare, among their number are the great legends of
the diamond world, like the Hope diamond, the Dresden Green, the Tiffany Yellow,
and the recently unveiled Blue Empress. Fancy coloured diamonds are highly
prized and they’re hideously expensive. Only the finest jewellers stock natural
coloured diamonds. Jeremy Morris has been in the family business for twenty
years.
JEREMY
MORRIS: Wealthy
people have the market for vivid and fancy intense colour diamonds, it’s not
for the average person, the price is prohibitive, unfortunately. This stone
here is, it’s a little freak of nature, it’s six carat, deep brownish, orangey
yellow, but that would be around three hundred thousand dollars. One-carat
twenty-five, vivid orangey yellow, dazzlingly beautiful, thirty eight thousand
pounds. We have here a twenty-five carat light pink one and a half million
dollars, or nearest offer.
NARRATOR: The lucrative trade in fancy
coloured diamonds was a market the Russian diamond makers were keen to exploit.
Prof
BOB HAZEN: It’s
possible to make duplicate Hope diamonds or red diamonds or yellow diamonds or
green diamonds, all different sorts of colours of diamonds just by controlling
the right impurity, a slight change in the chemical mix that goes in to making
these diamonds.
NARRATOR: But if the diamond makers were
going to stand any chance of selling their rocks first they had to convince the
diamond dealers of the West. Every year Las Vegas hosts one of the world’s
largest gem fairs, where thousands of dealers sell their wares to jewellers
from around the world. In 1999 coloured synthetic diamonds coming out of Russia
were show cased here for the first time.
MARTIN
RAPAPORT: Just
today we had here at the show a large selection of synthetic diamonds presented
and shown to us in a riot of fancy colours, you're talking about blue stones
that look like one hundred thousand dollar per carat stones, very nice stones.
NARRATOR: Lured by the dream of fabulous
wealth diamond labs had sprung up all over Russia. As a middleman for synthetic
diamonds Alex Grizenko had been drawn to Vegas.
ALEX
GRIZENKO: Through
the last several years we have been looking at what the potential market could
actually be. Today the market is truly in its infant, infant stage. And as
demand grows, and demand has to grow, this market has to be created, and as
demand grows so will supply, inevitably, it will be a big market.
NARRATOR: But back in 1999 the prospect of a
world flooded by synthetic Russian diamonds actually seemed remote. Their labs
lacked the funds and the necessary production skills.
ALEX
GRIZENKO (Synthetic diamond dealer):
The Russians certainly have problems today, we all understand that. Capital is
scarce, infrastructure is in some places complicated, capital investments in to
Russia today are difficult.
NARRATOR: But a chance meeting was about to
change all that. Like something out of a James Bond movie a Russian scientist
made a cautious approach to a former US army general. It was to be a fateful
encounter.
General
CARTER CLARKE (The Gemesis Corporation): I was in Moscow on another project, developing an
electronic security device, and one of the scientists on the project asked me
whether or not I was interested in diamond. And I said well I’m an
entrepreneur, I’m interested in most anything. Frankly I thought he was going
to ask me to invest in some diamond-mining project. But instead he took me to a
facility outside of Moscow and they, they showed me a machine that they claimed
would make diamonds.
NARRATOR: General Carter Clarke was
intrigued. But even though he decided to fork out one hundred and seventy
thousand dollars for three units, he was quite sceptical that the Russian
machines could make anything at all.
General
CARTER CLARKE: The
machines they had in Russia were doing experimental work, and there’s a big gap
between a laboratory type of operations and a commercial production. We really
had to bring good old Yankee ingenuity in to being in order to make this a
viable business.
NARRATOR: So he brought the whole operation
back to his native Florida, there he set up shop as the Gemesis Corporation,
his ultimate plan to mass produce synthetic diamonds. But straight away it was
clear the Russian machines just weren’t doing the business.
General
CARTER CLARKE: They
were able to get a crystal once in a while but not all the time, they couldn’t
get the size we wanted, they couldn’t get the colour we wanted, couldn’t get
the consistency we wanted, couldn’t get the yield we wanted. The whole idea of
the growth process had to be rethought.
NARRATOR: So General Clarke enlisted the
help of scientist from the University of Florida, Dr Rob Chodelka identified
the problem, too much human intervention.
Dr
ROB CHODELKA (The Gemesis Corporation):
When the machines initially came over, one of the large problems were they were
manually operated. There was a person sitting in front of that machine
twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, while that machine was running,
controlling the principle properties for that machine to operate, the pressure
and the temperature. We wanted to remove the human error associated with
running and operating this machine, so we could produce a product on a
consistent basis. That was we had to computer control it.
NARRATOR: The University scientists
attempted to automate the growth process entirely, no one had tried this
before, but eventually they managed to convert the machines. Using their
updated design Clarke’s technicians started building their own presses,
ultimately creating the world’s first gem diamond production line. Each of his
twenty-three machines could then be prepared and loaded in minutes, now it was
simple case of pressing start and waiting for the machine to do in four days
what nature does in four million years.
Dr
ROB CHODELKA: It’s
a short period of time, about eighty-two hours, is our heat compressured cycle,
and in that time we use about fourteen hundred watts of power, equivalent to a
hairdryer running at the same time.
NARRATOR: After each machine finished its
run the growth cores were extracted. They were then cracked open to reveal a
small lump of metal which contained the diamond. These were then each washed in
acid baths to dissolve away the metal, revealing the newly formed rough
diamond. Clarke was finally on his way to achieving his goal, he was now
producing fancy yellow diamonds, far superior in size and quality to anything
ever created in the Russian labs.
General
CARTER CLARKE:
Initially we were growing stones that were less than two carats, roughly about
one point five, one point six and one point seven carats. Now we’re growing
three to three and a half carats, and that will cut and polish to a stones
that’s almost two carats, but depending on the cut that you want. We’re also
getting a better colour, before we used to get a washed out yellow, now we get
a nice vivid or intense yellow.
NARRATOR: Until now it had only been the
‘über rich’ who could afford natural coloured diamonds. Clarke dreamt of taking
his coloured diamonds out on to the high street.
General
CARTER CLARKE:
These diamonds from nature are very expensive, a one carat, vivid yellow
diamond would go somewhere between fifteen and twenty thousand dollars. Our
comparable stone would go somewhere around four thousand dollars.
NARRATOR: Admittedly not for everyone’s
pocket, but high quality synthetic stones selling for a quarter of the price of
naturals sent ripples across the diamond pond. For the first time there was a
real threat of synthetic gem quality diamonds flooding the market, and
undermining the traditional diamond trade.
MARTIN
RAPAPORT: The
concern in the industry today is what if, just what if there is a way to
synthesise diamonds that are non-detectable from natural diamonds? What if
technology uses the ability to make this synthetic diamond and no one knows
this is synthetic?
NARRATOR: This possibility was not lost on
the world’s largest diamond trading company, De Beers. Unless they could
respond decisively they might lose their dominance of the market. Their first
tactic, simply dismiss the competition, unless it came out of the ground it
just wasn't the real thing.
STEPHEN
LUSSIER: Diamonds
are just so much more than just crystallised carbon, diamonds are something
from our, from our deep, deep past, billions of years old, a miracle of nature,
you can't replicate that in a laboratory yesterday in, in Florida, it’s not
possible.
NARRATOR: De Beers gem defence program then
sprang in to action. Millions of dollars had been spent developing various
machines to tell synthetics from the natural stones. The problem they faced was
that synthetics were now very high quality, it forced them to study down to the
diamond’s atomic structure, to detect even the tiniest differences.
Dr
SIMON LAWSON (Gem Defensive Projects, De Beers): This instrument is Diamond Sure,
it’s our rapid screening instrument that’s been designed to pass natural
diamonds, whilst at the same time referring all synthetic diamonds.
NARRATOR: Diamond Sure works by analysing
the way light is absorbed by a diamond. It’s down to how nitrogen impurities
form within the crystal. Nitrogen atoms occur in clumps in ninety eight percent
of all natural diamonds. This causes light to be absorbed in a specific way,
and provides the key to their detection.
Dr
SIMON LAWSON: This
has got a pass result, the user can be confident that this is a natural
diamond, and requires no further testing. I’m now going to place a yellow
diamond on to the probe, press the test key, and this time within a few seconds
it’s come up with a different result, it said refer for further tests.
NARRATOR: In yellow synthetic diamonds
nitrogen doesn’t exist in clumps, but instead as single atoms, dispersed
throughout the crystal, this causes light to be absorbed differently, which is
picked up by the machine. Any questionable stones then get transferred to De
Beers’ next line of defence, the Diamond View machine.
Dr
SIMON LAWSON:
Diamond View shines ultraviolet light on to the diamond and generates a surface
florescence image from which synthetics may be unambiguously identified.
NARRATOR: Under ultraviolet light both
natural and synthetic diamonds will glow to some degree, this is called fluorescence.
But it’s the patterns that are revealed by this glowing fluorescence that can
tell the two apart.
Dr
SIMON LAWSON: It’s
immediately obvious from the strong blocky blue fluorescence patterns that this
is a synthetic. You wouldn’t get these strong shapes of blue florescence from a
natural.
NARRATOR: Under the UV light natural yellow
diamonds look very different, producing a consistent yet very faint blue glow.
With technology like this De Beers feels it can out rightly dismiss the threat
of synthetics.
STEPHEN
LUSSIER: Today we
can, you know, easily detect each and every synthetic stones that’s made.
That’s really important to maintain industry confidence.
NARRATOR: De Beers were able to prevent any
lab grown coloured gems from being passed off as natural diamonds. No
synthetics could trick their way in to De Beers multi-billion dollar industry.
But none of this phases General Clarke, he’s starting to make serious headway
in to creating his own industry for synthetic diamonds. The key to Clarke’s
business plan is that he doesn’t intend to compete against De Beers.
GENERAL
CARTER CLARKE: We
do not want our diamonds to be passed off as natural diamonds. That wouldn’t do
us any good, would not do the industry any good, and certainly would not do the
consumer any good. So we’re very strong in our concern about that, and we’re
taking every measure that we can to prevent that.
NARRATOR: All his diamonds are sent to the
heart of the diamond district in New York City, to the International
Gemological Institute. Here they are officially certified as being manmade.
They are also subjected to a more invasive level of disclosure, and have their
origin tattooed on them by laser. General Clarke’s aim is to establish an
entirely new market of affordable coloured synthetic gems. Currently producing
two hundred diamonds a month Clarke has grand plans for massive expansion.
GENERAL
CARTER CLARKE: We
have twenty-three machines in this facility right now, are growing diamonds
twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. And what our ambition is, is to
fill this whole environment here with about two hundred and fifty machines in
the not too distant future.
NARRATOR: Clarke’s plan would create an
annual production of twenty five thousand high quality synthetic yellow
diamonds. In the nearby town of Sarasota on the west coast of Florida his
diamonds are already on sale.
KARL
SHRODE (Jeweller):
They’re absolutely beautiful, you couldn’t ask for more beautiful stones. It
makes it for more everyday people to be able to afford beautiful fancy coloured
diamonds.
NARRATOR: It’s too early to say if Clarke’s
new market of coloured synthetic diamonds will ever pose a serious financial
threat to De Beers. His output at the moment is just too small. And anyway for
De Beers it’s the clear colourless diamonds that are the main thrust of their
global empire, and that market was completely unthreatened, or so they thought.
Shrouded in utmost secrecy a company called Apollo Diamond has been operating
somewhere outside Boston, Massachusetts for the last two years. Highly
protective of their technology they have rarely granted access to their
laboratory. Horizon was never given the address, just taken to their production
facility. The company’s founder, Dr Robert Linares, had never intended to get
in to the diamond business. His interest had always been in semi-conductors.
Dr
ROBERT LINARES:
Previous company was manufacturing gallium arsenate wafers for very high
frequency devices such as cell phones and radars, and at the time that was the
ultimate semi-conductor. And after I left that company, I sold it, I want to go
to the next highest performance semi-conductor and that was going to be
diamond.
NARRATOR: Diamond has some unique properties
that make it a material with all sorts of possibilities for the high tech
industries.
Dr
ROBERT LINARES:
It’s the hardest material known to man. It has a highest velocity of sound, it
has a highest thermal conductivity, and it has semi-conductor properties which
exceed that of silicone and other materials.
BRYANT
LINARES (Apollo Diamond):
The real thrust is to develop new single crystal diamond technology and to
create the ability to grow large diamonds for a semi-conductor and optical
application.
NARRATOR: But it was while striving to meet
these goals that they stumbled upon something utterly unforeseen and ultimately
much more glamorous.
BRYANT
LINARES: We’re
actually seeing diamonds now that really have the ability to become diamond gem
cells.
NARRATOR: In their mission to make
semi-conductors they had discovered how to make clear colourless diamond.
BRYANT
LINARES: It was a
Eureka moment for this company, where we recognised that we could really do
something tremendous in this sixty billion dollar market place.
NARRATOR: The Linares adopted a completely
different approach to other gem diamond makers. A technique called chemical
vapour deposition, or CVD. Unlike previous methods of growing diamonds it
didn’t need high pressure or graphite, and was based on using two very common
gasses.
Dr
ROBERT LINARES: CVD
diamond is done at very low pressures, less than one atmosphere. And you
introduce two gasses, you introduce hydrogen and methane.
NARRATOR: But before the process could begin
what they needed was a seed for each new diamond to grow on. These seeds were
made of thin slivers of low-grade diamond. In preparation for growth they were
sliced and shaped using a high power laser.
PATRICK
DOERING (Apollo Diamond):
When we have the prepared seeds we then load them in to the machine and what
our process can do, is capable of doing is growing on multiple seeds at a time.
We can load twenty-five, fifty seeds at a time, and really how many seeds we
put in depends on the size of the individual seeds.
NARRATOR: When the growth chamber was closed
the pressure was lowered and the seeds heated to around eight hundred Celsius.
Hydrogen and methane were pumped in to the chamber, then using high power
microwaves the mixture was ignited forming a gas plasma. Within this chemical
soup highly reactive hydrogen atoms collided with the methane molecules
releasing carbon atoms. These atoms were then attracted down to bond with the
carbon atoms of the diamond seeds, and so the new diamonds grew, atom by atom.
But initially there was a hitch, others had tried CVD but could only produce
thin wafers of diamond, nothing like the thickness needed to create a gemstone.
Dr
ROBERT LINARES: It
was commonly thought by scientists around the world that you could never make
diamond by the CVD process that was greater than fifteen microns thick, that’s
far less than the thickness of a hair. We discovered how to cross that barrier,
we discovered it for a couple of reasons, one of which was we had to because we
were basing our future business on making single crystal that was thick. And
once we figured out how to do it we very quickly went to a half a millimetre
thick, one millimetre thick, three millimetres thick, five millimetres thick.
NARRATOR: To this day Robert Linares has not
revealed the secrets of his technique, but within his machine he could now
effectively watch three million years of diamond growth happening before his
eyes. But there was something else, his diamonds had a clarity and structure
unrivalled by any other synthetic process.
BRYANT
LINARES: The gem
diamonds that we make here at Apollo are very perfect. And they have the
capability of being the most perfect diamonds that we have seen on the planet.
The Naval research department here in the United States has called them the
most perfect diamonds that they’ve ever seen, both manmade or natural.
NARRATOR: Finally scientists were not just
able to match nature but make something even more perfect, and available at a
fraction of the cost. It was the first serious threat to the traditional market
in clear diamonds. De Beers’ scientists were now facing their ultimate test.
Never before had they come against a cheap synthetic diamond that might be more
brilliant than a natural one. If they couldn’t detect these new colourless
stones then consumer confidence in their natural diamonds could take a
hammering. Using their Diamond Sure device the clear CVD diamond was recognised
as an unusual stone, but it still required further tests.
Dr
SIMON LAWSON: Ok
this is a colourless stones that has been referred by the Diamond Sure
instrument, at this stage we don’t know whether it’s synthetic or one of the
rare types of natural diamond, so I’m going to place it in to the stone holder
and slide it in to the sample chamber of Diamond View. Focus the visible image
on to the table of the stone. And now I’m going to shine the ultraviolet light
on to the stone. This stone exhibits extremely intense orange florescence,
which is a characteristic of CVD diamond. Natural diamonds would typically show
a blue florescence.
NARRATOR: De Beers are confident in the
ability of their equipment to detect these new colourless diamonds, they’ve
sent their detection kit to gem labs around the world. But the question is will
that be enough to protect them in the long run? Typically only diamonds above a
certain size and quality are actually sent to labs for testing. The majority of
us by tiny diamonds from high street jewellers, and while they may be precious
to us diamonds so small are rarely sent to labs. The cost of testing them can
be greater than their actual market value. As a result the authenticity of
small stones, once in the market place, may never be questioned. This is an
entirely new challenge to De Beers, but they are adamant they will do anything
to keep their market safe.
STEPHEN
LUSSIER:
Maintaining consumer confidence in diamonds is worth any price that the De
Beers group needs to spend to ensure it is there. You know the diamond to a
consumer is a precious thing. They want to buy it with confidence, they want to
know what it is, and anything we can do to help that we will do.
NARRATOR: But the fact is high quality
synthetic diamonds now exist, and have the same fire and brilliance as
naturals. Driven by the likes of Gemesis and Apollo Diamond creating brand new
markets we now have the opportunity to buy synthetic diamonds. The only issue
is whether you’d want to. Or do you think a diamond is worth more if it comes
out of the ground?
MARTIN
RAPAPORT: The only
problem you’d have with synthetic diamonds is they’re not going to be as rare
and they’re not going to be as special. I mean I could give you a Mona Lisa, it
would be an exact copy of one, it would be fantastic, but the real thing is the
real thing, and that brings out a very special feeling.
GENERAL
CARTER CLARKE: You
know if an orchid is grown in a hot steamy jungle in Central America or it’s
grown in a hot house in California it’s still an orchid, it’s still very
beautiful, women will love to have it and they don’t really care where it comes
from.
JEREMY
NORRIS: Where’s the
romance when you, when you have a yellow diamond and you give it to your loved
one you go, she’ll go wow that’s amazing, and you go yeah you know this is,
this is a man grown diamond, and it’s like why didn’t you buy me a real one?
NARRATOR: It’s too soon to say if synthetic
diamonds will catch on or if they’ll undermine the trade in natural diamonds.
But there’s now a genuine chance that one day it could happen.
Evaluation and Identification of
Jade Jewelry: Fake or Genuine?
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