Lab Grown Diamonds arediamonds grown in highly controlled laboratory environments usingadvanced technological processes that duplicate the conditions underwhich diamonds naturally develop when they form in the mantle,beneath the Earth’s crust. Since they are made of the same materialas naturally mined diamonds, they exhibit the same optical andchemical properties.
The process of makinglab-grown begins with a seed. The diamond seed is used for both theprocesses of creating a lab-grown diamond – CVD and HPHT.
Chemical Vapor Deposition orCVD involves placing the seed in a plasma reactor chamber which has amix of carbon-rich gases added at low pressures. Microwaves areinserted into the chamber and superheated into a plasma. This createsthe optimum conditions for the carbon to deposit on the diamond seed.An ionization process takes place and the diamond seed begins togrow.
High Pressure High Temperatureor HPHT involves placing a diamond seed in a carbon medium with acatalyst. Carbon is the building block of all diamonds whether earthmined or made in a lab. High temperature and high pressure are thenapplied like when a diamond grows in the earth’s core. Thisdeposits the carbon on the diamond seed and makes it grow.
The Lab Grown diamonds arecreated with the same chemical compositions as Natural diamonds. Thecontrolled temperature and pressures allow the diamond seed to formthe same characteristics as Natural Mined Diamonds.
The Diamonds are judged basedon 4 C’s i.e Carat, Color, Clarity, and Cut. LGDs are graded on thesame criteria as mined diamonds, by the same independent gemologicallaboratories that grade earth-extracted diamonds.
Unlike the billions of yearsit takes to create mined diamonds, lab-grown diamonds typically take2-8 weeks to grow, depending upon the size of a diamond. Whitediamonds take the longest time to grow, taking about 2-3 weeks togrow a 1-carat diamond.
While the pricing of NaturalDiamonds is determined primarily by the 4C’s, the lab-growndiamonds have more uniform pricing. As the production of lab-growndiamonds is unlimited, they are priced significantly lower thannatural diamonds.
