Re: Laser Marks Diamond surface with Invisible Serial Number

Michael Moroney writes:

> Can they make synthetic gem quality diamonds yet?

Yes, Apollo Diamond is doing it. They are flawless water-white
stones, of the highest gem grade. The only way to distinguish them
from stones dug out of the ground is by noting the flaws: natural
stones always have flaws, whereas synthetic stones are perfect.

> How large?

I don't know. A few carats at least, I'm sure. The methods they use
are scalable and I wouldn't be surprised if fist-sized stones could be
economically produced a few years from now.

After all, it's just carbon. The big problem in the past was
squeezing the carbon into its diamond form, for which people usually
depended upon staggering pressure (84,000 atm) and heat. The new CVD
methods grow the crystals at much lower temperature and pressure
instead, not too much unlike the epitaxial growth used for silicon
crystals. This is vastly cheaper, easier, and more scalable, so the
monopoly of stones dug out of the ground is coming to an end now.

> I wonder how long the DeBeers stranglehold will last, I'm sure they're
> doing all they can to stop that.

I have a feeling that they'd stop at virtually nothing to preserve
their golden goose. They are trying very hard to convince people that
stones from the ground are better (when in fact just the opposite is
true), but who knows what else they are doing behind the scenes.

> Something like a diamond engagement ring's value is often only a little
> more than the value of the diamond itself.

Well, they'll be a dime a dozen soon.

Until about half a century ago, diamonds weren't that popular, anyway.
Their popularity is also the work of De Beers. I personally think
that opals are a lot nicer to look at (and they can't be synthesized
yet, since they are far more complex than simple carbon crystals).

--
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