PERFECT, mass-produced diamonds may hit the market soon thanks to a new technique for removing impurities from synthetic crystals. Not only are the stones indistinguishable from the real thing but they can be made as large as you like.
Synthetic diamonds are created by depositing carbon atoms from a gas onto a surface. But these diamonds have a brown tint due to impurities they absorb from the gas. Now Russell Hemley of the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington DC has discovered that microwaves will clean up the diamonds beautifully and the size of the finished gem is limited only by the size of the microwave chamber.
鈥淲e once sent one of our lab-grown diamonds for jewellery identification. It wasn鈥檛 told apart from natural ones,鈥� says team member Yufei Meng.
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