Laboratory Diamonds

There are two ways to grow the diamond. I do not know whether you like to cook or not, but there are two kitchen appliances that, for sure, you are familiar with. They are the microwave and the oven. So we can divide diamond growing machines into "microwaves" and "ovens." Don't smile, please.

The most productive and the most qualitative diamonds are grown in a kind of "oven" by HPHT technology, which means High-Pressure High Temperature. Compared with the kitchen oven, the modern HPHT "oven" weights like a battle tank, up to 60 tons, it has up to 6 meters height and can heat the "baking chamber" to 1500C, keeping the pressure of 60000 atmospheres. The stones by HPHT technology are usually of better quality, in varied colors. We can grow Colorless, Fancy Yellow, Pink, Blue, Green, and Orange tints and colors. It takes from 7 to 10 days to grow one carat of synthetic diamond of good quality. To create a 1500 C temperature and 60000 atmospheres pressure, the "oven" needs a lot of energy for such a long time. This is the reason why synthetic diamonds are only 25-30% cheaper compared to earth-mined stones. The equipment is also extremely susceptible. Even a small change in electricity power stops the growing process inside the chamber.

Another technology is CVD or Chemical Vapor Deposition is "Microwave" in plain language. This technology works much faster and with cheaper production costs, but... But as you know from your lifetime experience, there is always one small but significant word, "but." This technology is relatively young and fresh, and still, it has a lot of issues to be solved. Due to nitrogen-vacancy and hydrogen complexes, CVD synthetic diamonds are usually of brown tints and colors, which are less desirable than other colors of diamonds. It needs post-growth treatments such as in "oven" – High-Pressure High Temperature (HPHT) treatment and sometimes irradiation and annealing, which are applied to these synthetics to fix the brown color of CVD diamonds.

Laboratory-grown diamond has become an issue for significant diamond mining, manufacturing, and retail companies. All of them are very concerned about the growing quality and quantity of artificial diamonds on the market. Crystal clear, more transparent laboratory-grown diamonds displaying a better play of colors and much better play of light. Because of the significantly lower price, it became a problematic competitor for naturally mined stone. To prevent synthetic diamonds from being compared to earth mined, Diamond Bourses used all their influence to press on major gemological laboratories to avoid laboratory-grown diamonds graded the same way as earth mined. This was done to prevent the possibility of comparing the earth-mined and the laboratory-grown diamond by the end buyer. For example, GIA in laboratory-grown diamond reports grades Colorless instead of D, E, F colors. As there is no difference between D, E, or F colors, they do not differ between VS1 and VS2 clarity grades, calling it Very Slightly Included. That is why most of the artificial diamonds are graded by IGI gemological laboratory. They still traditionally rank the laboratory-grown stones.

Nevertheless, synthetic diamond production is growing from day today. New factories are opening. The scientists are working on the improvement of technologies. So, shortly, we will see an overall presentation of human-made diamonds on the jewelry market.