Lab Grown Diamonds are diamonds grown in highly controlled laboratory environments using advanced technological processes that duplicate the conditions under which diamonds naturally develop when they form in the mantle, beneath the Earth’s crust. Since they are made of the same material as naturally mined diamonds, they exhibit the same optical and chemical properties.
The process of making lab-grown begins with a seed. The diamond seed is used for both the processes of creating a lab-grown diamond – CVD and HPHT.
Chemical Vapor Deposition orCVD involves placing the seed in a plasma reactor chamber which has a mix of carbon-rich gases added at low pressures. Microwaves are inserted into the chamber and superheated into a plasma. This creates the optimum conditions for the carbon to deposit on the diamond seed.An ionization process takes place and the diamond seed begins to grow.
High Pressure High Temperature or HPHT involves placing a diamond seed in a carbon medium with a catalyst. Carbon is the building block of all diamonds whether earth mined or made in a lab. High temperature and high pressure are then applied like when a diamond grows in the earth’s core. This deposits the carbon on the diamond seed and makes it grow.
The Lab Grown diamonds are created with the same chemical compositions as Natural diamonds. The controlled temperature and pressures allow the diamond seed to form the same characteristics as Natural Mined Diamonds.
The Diamonds are judged based on 4 C’s i.e Carat, Color, Clarity, and Cut. LGDs are graded on the same criteria as mined diamonds, by the same independent gemological laboratories that grade earth-extracted diamonds.
Unlike the billions of years it takes to create mined diamonds, lab-grown diamonds typically take2-8 weeks to grow, depending upon the size of a diamond. White diamonds take the longest time to grow, taking about 2-3 weeks to grow a 1-carat diamond.
While the pricing of NaturalDiamonds is determined primarily by the 4C’s, the lab-grown diamonds have more uniform pricing. As the production of lab-grown diamonds is unlimited, they are priced significantly lower than natural diamonds.
