Characterization of synthesized and treated gem diamonds

Abstract

Synthesized diamonds have been widely employed as polishing media for precise machining and noble substrates for microelectronics. The recent development of the split sphere press has led to the commercial HPHT (high pressure high temperature) synthesis of bulk gem diamonds from graphite and to the enhancement of low quality natural diamonds. Synthesized and treated diamonds are sometimes traded deceptively as high quality natural diamonds because it is hard to distinguish among these diamonds with conventional gemological characterization methods. Therefore, we need to develop a new identification method that is non-destructive, fast, and inexpensive. We proposed using new methods of UV fluorescence and X-ray Lang topography for checking the local HPHT stress field as well as using a vibrating sample magnetometer for checking ferromagnetic residue in synthesized diamonds to distinguish these diamonds from natural ones. We observe unique differences in the local stress field images in synthesized and treated diamonds using Lang topography and UV fluorescence characterization. Our result implies that our proposed methods may be appropriate for identification of the synthesized and treated diamonds.