“Mined diamonds are a gift of nature whereas manmade diamonds are a gift of human wisdom.”
Lin Qiang Vice-President, World Federation of Diamond Bourses
What are lab-grown diamonds?
Just like mined diamonds, lab diamonds also have the same crystal structure, chemical composition, and physical and optical properties – carbon atoms arranged in a proper cubic crystal structure. Our CVD Lab Diamonds are always indistinguishable from natural, mined diamonds of equivalent quality and pass the diamond tester pen test, unlike HPHT lab-grown diamonds.
Given that the growth process of our CVD lab diamonds is similar to the natural diamond growth, there are still quite some variations when it comes to the color and clarity of lab-created diamonds. In simpler words, not all lab-grown diamonds are colorless or flawless. As a matter of fact, lab-created diamonds are actually graded on the exact same criteria as mined diamonds (the Four C’s) by the very same independent and high-class gemological laboratories that grade earth-extracted diamonds.
Unlike those cheap, easy-to-make diamond simulants such as cubic zirconia and moissanite, lab diamonds offer the same high-quality as natural earth mined diamonds. They have the exact same scintillation, fire, flash, and brilliance as mined, natural diamonds. Additionally, Our Lab-Originated Pure Diamonds do not fade or change color over time.
ILANIS proudly offers high-quality, only CVD laboratory-grown diamonds in our fine jewelry to our valuable clients. Compared to natural mined diamonds, our diamonds are sustainably cultured and have far fewer impurities and defects. This is the primary reason why our diamonds are always brighter, whiter, and obviously much stronger than the enormous majority of mined diamonds available.
How is a diamond grown?
In a laboratory by replicating those exact same conditions within the earth in which carbon crystallizes into diamond.
To date, the ability to grow diamonds is considered to be the most precise and challenging manufacturing technique that has ever been achieved by humans. Most might not know the fact that it took almost 60 years of intense effort to develop that precision to grow gemstone-quality diamonds.
As of today, there are two primary methods of growing diamond gemstones: HPHT (High Pressure-High Temperature) & CVD (Chemical Vapor Deposition).
The HPHT method
The HPHT Diamond Growth Process occurs within giant pressure cookers.
The process mainly involves the use of small diamond seeds which are placed into a growth cell while inserting graphite on top of the diamond seeds. Further, the pressure cooker is heated to a whopping 1500° C and pressurized to roughly around 70,000 times the pressure present at sea level.
At such an extreme temperature and pressure, the graphite in the growth cell basically melts down into liquid carbon, which is then carefully cooled into the strongest possible form of carbon: a diamond crystal!
The CVD method
The CVD (Chemical Vapor Deposition) method is way different from HPHT. Here, diamond growth occurs within vacuum plasma reactors. Very thin diamond plates are then placed into a growth cell, and hydrocarbon gas is slowly injected into the reactor. Very high-power microwaves break apart those molecules of the gas, and the carbon atoms then precipitate onto those diamond plates, vertically growing the diamond slowly atom by atom.
These resulting CVD diamonds are often subjected to extreme pressure & conditions in order to “compress” the diamond properly. This additional step plays a significant role in improving the overall quality of the diamond crystal, giving it a better color and light performance.
“The ruling is simplicity itself. A diamond is a diamond no matter whether it is grown in a lab or comes out of the ground.Lab grown diamonds are diamonds.”
Federal Trade Commission, August 2018
