Creating a lab grown diamond, is a complex process of innovation, advanced technology and master craftsmanship.
Man made diamonds, also known as cultured diamonds, are 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.
These man made diamonds consist of actual carbon atoms arranged in the characteristic diamond crystal structure. Since they are made of the same material as natural diamonds, they exhibit the same optical and chemical properties. A lab diamond can only be distinguished from natural diamonds using specialized equipment that can detect the minor differences in trace elements and crystal growth.
Lab grown diamonds are grown from a specialised carbon plate known as a seed. This seed is then placed inside a low-pressure microwave chamber. Hydrogen and methane gases are then introduced, and a microwave generator pumps energy in, igniting a glowing plasma ball. Carbon molecules rain on the seed, layering on top of it and fast-tracking the natural crystallization process.
A lab grown diamond brings all of the elements of nature together in a creative and innovative process to make a modern stone.
The final step in this process is to cut and polish the diamond by a master diamond cutter in exactly the same process that mined diamonds undergo.
Physically and chemically diamonds and lab grown diamonds are identical, as well as the final process in which they are polished and cut. A diamond is a diamond whether it's mined from the earth or created from the lab.
"Lab-grown diamonds have the same chemical composition and crystal structure as diamonds created by nature."
GEMOLOGICAL INSTITUTE OF AMERICA